Time has Changed
by Tokyo McDiamond
Summary: Akane is the owner of a hotel that is known for the biggest underground parties and has even a bigger secret as the straw hats enter her life
1. Chapter 1

Her arm flexed grabbing the monstrous hand of the man opposite of her settling her delicate elbow onto the coarse wooden table. Her eyes went to the man across locking her eyes with his one eye seeing him smirk showing the lack of dental work he had been given over the years. While he just smirked she kept her face emotionless but her eyes shone with determination that she could take this massive 300 pound pack of meat down. While they stood each other down another man just as massive as the man holding her hand came and covered their hands with his. Looking at them from left to right seeing the daggers being thrown between each other, he let their hands go and the battle was on. They pushed against each other with all their might gritting their teeth trying to overcome the other.

Men were all around them cheering them on not really caring who would win between the dainty small girl and the immense 300 pound monster. They were all drunk with liquor and music that played around the stone wall room entertaining them to the max. Dancing and songs were shared all over along with the clinking of bear mugs indicating the cheers for being happy that they were alive. Beer was sloshing out of mugs in the stomps and dances vibrating through the room just like the beer that was splashed across the wooden table getting it slick and sticky as the men cheered. The room whole room smelled of stale beer, sweat, and body but no one cared it was all in good fun as they dances, sang, played, and cheered.

That was up until there was a very loud ring. It knocked the girl out of her trance and her eyes got wide. She stood up as well bring the large man down as she hopped over to the bell. The man had practically been thrown through the table that now lay broken on the floor as the man laughed and joked seeing him unconscious upon the broken table. The girl looked at the bell ringing and sighed seeing I was from the front office and picked up the phone that connected her.

"Hello?" she asked plugging her other ear to be able to listen.

"We have customers" a slight gentlemen voice answered.

"Okay, I'll be right up" she answered before putting the phone down.

The men were picking the fallen man up and setting him in a chair slapping him awake to hand him a beer as they patted his back. She grabbed a tan apron hanging by a thick wooden door and threw it over red long John shirt and leather short shorts. She pulled open the door and then threw it closed quickly so no sound could escape. She started up the stone steps and pushed aside the beige and tan sheets that blocked the way. The cash register that blocked any nosy customers came into view after pushing the sheets away as well as a group of customers; at least eight people.

"Hello my name is Akane, owner and manager of Sakurai Hotel, how may I help you?" she asked with a smile.

A man in a suit and an unlit cigarette grabbed her hand and then started to kiss it violently.

"Oh my darling angel your hair is like the midnight sky anything you can give us will be greatly cherished" he flirted with hearts in her eyes.

A sweat dropped rolled down side of Akane's head as she just looked down at this man kissing her hand. Things were silent as she spoke to her of her great generosity and beauty which reminded her so much of some one she knew. Just before this man could go into how much he would like to date her, a broom stick was smashed into the top of his head. The end of the stick was Shinnosuke with a sort of irritated expression.  
"Hey wise guy, what's the big idea?" the blond man asked yelling at Shinnosuke.

"Please respect Miss Akane's space" he simply stated before taking his broom stick back.

"Thank you Shinnosuke, hey can you do me a favor and man down below?" she asked pointing to the sheets behind her.

"Certainly Miss Akane" he nodded before disappearing behind the sheets.

Getting back to the room expenses, before they could say what they wanted Akane was already pressing buttons on the cash register looking at this laminated piece of paper. They just watched as she kept on pressing buttons at lightening speed with a look of total concentration on her face. Then she stopped suddenly looking at the price it came to and then looked at them.

"Three bedroom with bathrooms, access to lunch rooms as well as the special rooms and the west wing will come down to a thousand and five berries, please" she answered with a golden smile.

They paid her the money and she put it in the cash register before handing the position to another person. A tall skinny man with no hair but still young wearing a black T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up and light blue jeans tucked into black laced up boots. She gave him the key to open the register if needed to and the carried on to the tour of the hotel. She talked about the tea room that was on the first floor in the south wing which appealed mostly to the feminine gender. Hearing that, the six men groaned but then stopped when she said that she had room that appealed to the men as well.

She stopped them after going up some stairs at these wooden double doors. She pushed them open and the six men that were there stopped. It was a bar, a magnificent bar. There was a bar counter with beer spouts lining the back of the counter where the bartender stood. Along the wall behind the bar were shelves showing the many types of liquor it held as well as the beer mug sizes on the very top shelf. The bar counter was made of a fine red wood with leather cushioned stools instead of hard wood ones. The tables were made of the same red wood as the bar counter and the same leather cushioned stools. It looked like a man's dream.

"This is the bar room and as you can see there is also a pool table in the corner over there if you guys ever get competitive" she smiled seeing them eye the hard liquor on the shelves.

They continued on pulling the men from the bar and to the area where their rooms will be. Getting there, she handed the keys to them letting them decide who would have what room.

"If you get hungry there is a lunch room in the south wing as well as a sauna, the tea room is also there, and a hot springs if your shower is not properly working" she noted before they left.

"If there are any problems please come down to the front office and I or Shinnosuke will attend to you, have a nice day" she smiled before skipping off.


	2. Chapter 2

They looked at the keys and decided that the Robin and Nami, the two girls, will have one room and Ace, Sanji, and Zolo will share one room while Chopper, Ussop, and Luffy will share the other. The girls walked into the room and were almost amazed at the décor of the room. There were two bed decorated with a jungle of beige and golden brown pillow on top of a fluffy white comforter. Next to each bed was a light brown night stand with a golden brown shaded lamp. There was a window with a small white tea table and two matching tables. Peach curtains were pulled back from the window letting a light breeze fall through carrying in the scent of the ocean and the sound of seagulls. The girls looked at each other before jumping on a bed claiming it feeling their bodies sink into the plush blankets and falling into a heavy sleep. The men were the same except poor Ace was on the floor and Ussop and Luffy were sharing a bed despite Ussop was on the very edge.

The girls woke up feeling better than every from the comfortable beds they had slept in. They took showers and changed their clothes deciding to check out the tea room Akane had mentioned before. After hearing the snoring through the doors they decided to leave the guys alone. They followed the signs to the south wings passed Shinnosuke who was manning the cash register. Once in the south wing they saw many people in robes and towels going into different rooms with happy faces. They followed some stairs pointing to the tea room and opened some wooden double doors. Their faces faltered seeing magnificent tea room.

The walls were painted a light peach color with a black vine of sakura flowers starting from one corner of the wall expanding out over the walls. There was a white counter kind of like the one in the bar except half of the counter was for tea and the other for treats. The tea side was lines with jars of different teas and other add ins such as honey, sugar, cinnamon, or lemon. There was tea cups of different China stacked up with matching plates on the counter. There were machines to make the many teas lined against the counter as the girls behind the counter worked. The other side had things such as cupcakes, cookies, biscotti's, or sandwiches and salads. There was a display of the many treats as well as a menu of the names and the calories each one had. Off in the far corner was a coffee counter with many coffee machines and the different ground coffee beans held in shiny silver metal jars. There was a fridge holding cream, caramel sauce, whip cream, and even some extracts. The tables were of a sakura pink colored wood with matching chairs that had the same pattern of the walls on the backing of the chairs. The tables had a little display set to hold the little treats that they had ordered as well as a little vase of some flowers on top of the white lace table cloth. Not only that but the waiters were these good looking men wearing black slacks, white button ups, black vests, and a white waist apron. Their hair was slick back wearing a golden smile that made girls faint.

Right now in the tea room was a couple of girls observing the handsome waiters but then the two girls noticed Akane sitting there with an elderly man. The elderly man looked to be in his early eighties with no hair but a cut down the left side of his head and over his left eyes. His eyes were pale with age but full of wisdom just as his mustache and bread were full of grey hairs. He wore a white long John shirt, black baggy pants, and slippers. A wooden cane was leaned against the table but he looked like he didn't need it. Akane sat across from him with her long blue black hair held back with a folded white bandana. Her revealing clothes of her leather short shorts and dark blue and white stripped tube top showed off many tattoos and scars. Their eyes caught a long scar going down her calf into her ankle boots.

"Morning Miss Akane" they greeted.

"Good morning girls, please just call me Akane only Shinnosuke calls me Miss Akane" she greeted as she drank her chai tea.

"Ladies please meet someone very special this is my grandfather Mr. Kenshin or Grandpa Ken around here" she introduced.

"Good morning Grandpa Ken" she bowed to the elderly man.

"Welcome to the tea room, what do you think?" she asked.

"It's wonderful" Nami said eyeing a waiter carrying a new up of chai tea for Akane.

"Here you are Miss Akane" he bowed putting the tea cup.  
"Thank you Hanzo, here buy yourself something nice" she flirted slipping a few bills into his slacks pocket.

Grandpa Ken shook his head at his grand daughter not believing she was the cute little girl in sundresses when he last saw her. The two girls joined then ordering some coffee and tea as well some sandwiches. They were enjoying themselves until Grandpa Ken started to break out into violent coughs. Akane quickly got him some water to drink while patting his back lightly as he was soon able to contain himself.

"Here Grandpa let's get you back to your bed" she sighed helping him up handing him his cane.

"Yes, to the bed we shall go" the old man rasped taking slow steps.

Akane helped carry her grandfather up to his room and into his bed taking off his slippers and tucking the blanket up to his chest. She helped him take some medicine and drink a bowl of broth especially made from certain herbs and root. He sighed as she put the bowl down and wiped his forehead with a cold wet cloth before dropping it back into the wooden bowl.

"You want me to read to you?" she asked about to pick up a book from his collection.

"No, I shall sleep" he rasped waving her off.

"Okay, just ring if you need me" she said pointing to the bell above his bed.

He gave out a noise that sounded like he heard her and left the room closing the door silently. Just as he heard the door click close, Grandpa Ken turned his head to look at the picture that was placed on his night stand. It was of his beloved daughter, Sakurai, and his granddaughters. He touched it with a shaking hand seeing how much his granddaughter, Akane, looked like Sakurai. He pulled his hand back and lay back on his back closing his eyes to sleep.

"Why hello angel, care for a drink?" the blond guy from the night before asked.

"I don't drink on the job, sorry Mr…" she stopped not knowing his name.

"Sanji, just call me Sanji" he introduced.

"Sanji, I don't drink while I'm working sorry, but I sure you and your friends would like a drink" she said pointing to a guy with black hair wearing a red vest and blue shorts with a straw hat.

Before Sanji could say anything there was a bell and Akane was quick to answer it seeing it was the lunch room. She pretended to he preoccupied with the problem seeing that the cooks were running out of food and they needed someone to go to the store. Hanging up she asked Mimi, a coworker passing by, where Shinnosuke was and found that he was down below cleaning up. Groaning she told Mimi that she was in charge of the cash register and Shinnosuke was in charge of the hotel until she came back. She ran down the stairs and found him cleaning a pile of broken glass and wood.

"You're in charge until I get back from the store" she ordered before running back up.

"Yes Miss Akane" he nodded before going back to his work.

She ran back up stairs and reached under the counter of the cash register handing the key to Mimi as she took a pair of nun-chucks and stuck them in the back belt loop of her leather shorts. Then she ran to the south wing where the lunch room was and grabbed the list of food that was needed before bolting out of the hotel and into the village. As she went along getting what she needed, people greeted her and waved while she did the same. She went from store to store buying the immense amount food needed for all of her customers, which were mostly men. Also with the food needed she also went to a small shop that sold books.

Not many people came there since their books were the storytellers that came from across the sea. She approached the counter covered with open books and journals setting down her groceries. Seeing no one around, she knocked a specific set of knocks on the counter before a man appeared out of no where. He was short and had crazy white hair sticking out in different directions. He had many wrinkles upon his face, almost enough to cover up his aged brown eyes. He had a monocle on one eye as he looked up at her before his eyes adjusted recognizing her face.

"Ah Akane, come to get your package?" he asked in an aged shaky voice.

"Yes Mr. Vikor, as well as buy another book" she said looking around his collection.

"Ahh how's your grandfather?" he asked going around in the back while she looked at his collection.

"He's doing well, still able to talk, walk, and eat which is pretty good in my book" she answered loud enough for him to hear.

"Very good, very good indeed, ah here it is" he called from the back.

His footsteps were heard shuffling back to the front to the counter where he put the cloth wrapped package on the counter. Digging in her pocket Akane fished the change out of her pocket settling it into Mr. Vikor's shaking ghostly hands. Looking around, she saw a book on the counter which had caught her eye. Her hand picked it up skimming through the first couple pages was about a brother and sister always sailing around the world until one day a storm break their ship in half and they get separated. She smiled as Mr. Vikor was about to hand her change back but she shook her head saying she would like to purchase this book.

"It's on the house, I insist" he said handing the money back to her.

"But Mr. Vikor" she said with her eyes wide but he stopped her.

"It's for your grandfather, a good friend of mine, this is me doing a favor for him" he smiled.

"Thank you" she smiled.

She pocketed her money and then resumed her food shopping putting the package into her back pocket and the book into a bag. She hurried with the rest of the stuff feeling like her arms could extended any farther and could hold any more weight. Akane ran back to the hotel and dropped the things off glad to be rid of all the weight as the cooks thanked her. She panted wiping the sweat from her forehead taking the book from one of the bags before leaving the lunch room. She hopped up the stairs to her grandpa's room and peeked inside to see if he was awake. Hearing his light snores she opened the door and put the package on the nightstand along with the new book ready to read to him whenever he needed.


	3. Chapter 3

Then afterwards she went about her business making sure everything was getting tended to. She helped clean up rooms, set out more towels and robes, clean dishes, cook food, clean hallways, scrub stairs, and man the cash register. But then by the time that the sun was setting all jobs were done and people were lining up. Akane checked on her grandpa one more time making him get up and take his medicine and tell him that she got a new book. He just yawned and rolled on his side falling asleep again as Akane sighed turning off his light and putting the book down going to the cash register. The sun was down and a lot of people, mostly men, were walking the stairs to get down below. She greeted them pulling the sheets apart for them to get through easily. Finally seeing no one else was going down she let herself go down with Shinnosuke trailing behind her. She opened the door seeing the mess of people drinking and dancing.

She smiled turning to Shinnosuke behind her and pulling his hand to where people were dancing. Facing each other they grabbed hands and started to spin around following along with the music laughing the day of stress away. He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her in the air spinning in a circle as she laughed before being put down and then started spinning in a circle. All the workers and customers laughed drunk with alcohol and entertainment finally able to relaxing from a hard day's work. People were playing violins, drums, and Akane even heard a bagpipe. Shinnosuke grabbed two mugs of beer and gave one to Akane who clicked mugs with him before they started chugging away.

"Who loves Sakurai?" someone yelled from the crowd of people around them.  
"We love Sakurai" the others around yelled making themselves laugh.

They hooted and hollered chugging beer and dancing making beer spill around in their cups onto the floor. They were having so much fun enjoying themselves even if the room smelled a bucket of sweat and decade old ale, it was still fun. Akane had fun dancing around with Shinnosuke and drinking down as much beer as she can while singing the lovely songs of their time. Looking around, Akane could see the others were having fun dancing and talking, having arm wrestling contests even when they knew they were too drunk to stop swaying. Akane ran over to the arm wrestling tables and called to play winner. At the moment of the third man letting go of their hands the least drunk of them simply won almost breaking the table as people laughed and placed bets.

Akane took the empty seat taking a small drag of a cigarette before blowing it as she eyed her contender. The third man let go and her arm flexed seeing the man give his all trying to get her delicate fragile hand to touch the table. Letting her strength slip and her hand fall back a few inches she let his spirits catch up before she took another small drag of a cigarette and then smirked. The man looked at her with almost curious eye of her smirk before it was a full on grin and his arm and body went down to the ground knocking over the table. He landed on his back groaning while Akane sat in her seat letting out a war cry as the crowd around her cheered clinking glasses to let more beer spill. She was suddenly picked up and put on a shoulder of a different 300 pound giant laughing as he praised her.

"Quiet! Quiet!" he yelled getting everyone's attention.

"I would like to thank this little lady for all the fun times in this hotel, if it wasn't for Sakurai, none of us would be here!" yelled making Akane laugh and blush.

He put her down and Shinnosuke lead her to the dance floor once more before he bowed and Akane curtseyed. They linked arms with their beer mugs in hand jumping around in circles as the music began to become more lifted and boisterous. People stomped the hard stone ground making the very walls vibrate and shake the hotel of sleeping people. Shinnosuke shoved his beer mug to some random drunk person and grabbed Akane by her waist one more and lifted her in the air spinning in fast circles. She laughed stretching out her arms letting the beer splash out of the cup and onto the ground. Akane found her vision spinning around in circles but then found herself spiraling into her bed tired.

"Get some sleep Miss Akane" Shinnosuke ordered about to leave.

"Shinnosuke" she groaned pulling on his shirt.

Shinnosuke gave a loud 'Ack!' as he was pulled down to the bed by Akane. He found himself half on the bed with Akane snuggling to his should giving a happy sigh. He didn't give a care to her kissing his cheek and then snuggling back to his shoulder with an 'I Love you Shinnosuke' before falling asleep. He sweat dropped looking over at her seeing her drool slightly and snore softly. He just gave a light grunt and allowed himself to sleep next to the drunken Akane.

Shinnosuke awoke to the sound of the shower running and grunted getting up making sure to leave before Akane came out of the bathroom. Akane exited out of the bathroom in just her underwear with a towel in her hair seeing Shinnosuke had left already and blinked surprised before getting dressed. She just put on these black high waist short shorts with a white sleeveless shirt tucked in with her regular ankle lace up boots. Going over to her grandpa's room she saw he had a tray of his regular breakfast with his medication already taken.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked making sure he took all of them.

"It was pleasant enough, I see you bought another book" he noted seeing the new book on the night stand.

"Yeah, I thought you would like it, it's about a brother and sister that get separate and spent their years looking for each other, Mr. Vikor gave it to me for free" she explained sitting in the chair ready to read it to him.

"Akane, you can read it to me later, I want you to work today, and I feel very tired today" her grandpa rasped.

"Are you sure?" she asked taking the tray from his lap.  
"Yes I feel a need to go back to sleep" he coughed laying back down.

"Okay, just ring if you need me" she pointed to the bell.

Akane closed his door cautiously and began to deliver the tray back to the lunch room. Nami and Robin had been spending most of their time in the tea room scoping out the waiters and enjoying the tea. They decided to go back to their rooms to see if the guys had woken from their one day coma when they Akane walking down. They couldn't help but look at her and think that she was very hot, even if they were both girls. Miss Akane had this pale skin that looked almost like sweet milk that made her midnight blue black hair stand out even more. Her brown eyes stood so much against her pale complexion that they almost looked like sparkling apple cider. Then the way she was so comfortable with her body and how she flaunted it was sexy especially with the way she dressed, it was seductive. They could tell she was strong by her muscles but she was also very small.

"Good morning Miss Akane" Robin greeted.

"Good morning girls, sleep well?" she smiled.

"Very well, the beds are so comfortable" Nami nodded violently.

"I hoped so, I want the very best for my customers" Akane smiled once again.

"Miss Akane, Nami and I were going to go to the hot springs later on, would you like to join?" Robin invited.

"I would love to" Akane nodded with a softness in her face that made them almost blush.

"Okay, we'll see you later Miss Akane" Nami smiled as they hopped up the stairs.

"Looking forward to it" she called to them.


	4. Chapter 4

Nami and Robin walked up the stairs shortly after talking to Miss Akane only to find Sanji and Zolo arguing. Zolo was holding Sanji back from doing something while Sanji had the biggest hearts in his eyes trying to get from Zolo's hold. They just smacked the both of them to get the two of them out of their daze as they held the back of their soar heads.

"What are you guys fighting about?" Nami growled down to the two of them.

"He was about to go molest that blue haired girl" Zolo barked pointing to Akane who stopped to take care of some customers.

"She's so beautiful like an angel princess sent down from heaven, I can't believe how someone like her doesn't take her beauty so seriously" Sanji sighed grabbing the area where his heart would be.

"I have to agree Miss Akane is pretty hot, but please don't go molesting her, I think she could kick your but, Sanji" Robin advised.

"Yeah Sanji, I swear if you do go molesting her and we get kicked out, I will pound your face in so hard into the ground, you'll say hi to satan on the way there" Nami warned with a fist.

"Please don't be mad Nami, you know I love you, please don't be mad" Sanji cried hugging Nami's leg.

"Well we are going to the hot springs with Miss Akane, want to come with us?" Robin asked as Sanji's hopes perked up.

"Yes, I would love to join you two lovely ladies in the hot bliss of a hot springs" He smirk standing back up with the help of an ego boost.

Akane worked hard all day, harder than most days with cleaning the whole hotel and paying bills as well as take care of her grandpa. Her grandpa seemed like his health was staying stable enough for him to keep on living and with the help of the medicine she had been giving him, it was helping prolong his life. She sighed sitting behind the cash register wiping sweat from her brow when the bell in front of her rang. Looking up she saw it was a tall guy with shaggy black hair wearing a hat that had a smiley face and a sad face on the front. He was shirtless showing off his abdominal muscles and chest but wore faded shorts that went to his knees.

"Hello how may I help you?" she asked with a slight yawn.

"I was wondering if you can point me to the lunch room" he asked with a slight smile.

"Down that hall and just follow the signs that say lunch room" she pointed off to her left.

"Thank you ma'me, would you like anything from the lunch room?" he asked which caused a little chuckle from Akane.

"I mean it, they have these wonderful muffins with this struddle crumb on top and it taste great oh and the pancakes there are amazing especially if you eat them with this omelet that has like bell peppers, cheese, steak, and hot sauce" he blabbered causing Akane to giggle.

"No thank you sir, I'm quite fine" she smiled seeing his shrug.

"Are you sure? I mean I can make you a plate and bring it to you to enjoy while you eat, or just give you small portions just to try it out" he smiled.

"I already ate, but thank you for the offer" she giggled.

"My pleasure" he bowed before going off to the lunch room.

Akane shook her head as she looked at the time seeing it was almost sun down and looked at Shinnosuke who was organizing the paid bills in a filing cabinet. Remembering that Robin and Nami invited her to the hot springs, she told Shinnosuke that he was in charge of down below when people started lining up. He nodded seeing the sun was setting through the hotels front window before going back to the filing. Akane checked up on her grandpa making him take his medicine once again and drink some freshly brewed broth before letting him go back to sleep. Then closing his door she went to her room just down the hall and changed out of her clothes into her dark blue robe with a towel thrown over her shoulder putting her long hair up into a messy high bun. She skipped down the stairs with her white bunny slippers seeing Nami and Robin waiting for her in their robes as well as the men they had arrived with.

"Sorry they decided to tag along" Nami pointed to the guys.

"That's okay" Akane smiled making Sanji melt on spot.

They made their way to the hot spring decided that if they were going to the mixed spring that everyone's towel would stay on. The single gender springs were across the hall with the hot spring being divided by a wall of enormous rocks letting each person get their own privacy. They went into the different robes to let themselves get dressed in their towels before opening another door that let them get to the hot spring. Nami and Robin's eyes went huge seeing the hot spring was HUGE. Along the side of the hot springs were lawn chairs and low tables to rest on with exotic trees planted around to give a sense of the tropics. The hot spring border was made of large rocks which gave them seats to sit on in the water and places to lean against. They giggled running and jumping in the water letting out big sighs as the hot water soothed their skin.

"You guys didn't need to splash" Zolo grunted seeing as he got splashed.

"BANZAI!" Luffy yelled jumping from one of the tropical trees into the water.

"The water's not that deep" Akane warned seeing his feet sticking up from the water.

"Don't worry, he's made out of rubber so he's fine" Ussop reassured.

"How is he made of rubber?" Akane asked with wide eyes.

"He ate a devil's fruit, so now he's made out of rubber" Zolo said digging in his ear.

"Oh, do you want to go in the water?" Akane asked Chopper squatting down to his height.

Chopper blushed seeing how pretty she was and how she asked him specifically if he wanted to go in. He nodded stiffly still blushing as he took her hand that she held out to him and lead him to the water. She stepped a foot in and then sank in holding out her other hand for him to take. Chopper took her hand and she helped him in the water before settling him into her lap sitting in a submerged rock for him to enjoy. He gave a light sigh enjoying the water even if he was getting his fur wet. The guys looked at each other thinking who would be the first to give in and try the water. It was soon becoming a test to see who was most manly before Nami let Chopper sit on her lap. Akane got up and sat on the edge of the spring climbing out and approaching the men.

"You guys get in and enjoy the water" Akane said grabbing their attention.

They looked at her and blushed seeing her. The towel was thin and only covered from the top of her breast down to her mid thigh. Since they had agreed everyone would keep a towel on, Akane went in with her towel around her and it was wet; soaking wet. It clung to her showing off all of her curves; every single curve of her body. The curves in her hips, waist, ribs, and the curve of her bosom, it showed off her curves much better than the clothes she usually wore. Their faces heated up turning away to hide their beet red faces. Ussop, getting the hint, was able to compose himself and take Akane by her shoulders, turn her around, and get in the water.

"Akane my angel, here I come" Sanji yelled as he jumped into the water.

"This water feels so nice, what's in it?" Nami asked Akane who just had her feet in.

"Special herbs to smooth and moisturize skin" Akane explained kicking up some water.

"Hey Akane!" Luffy yelled grabbing her attention.

She turned and saw Luffy had stretched and rounded himself in a ball and was bouncing himself at her. The closer he got to her the high her bounced and the more Akane was starting to get worried right up until Luffy was bouncing right over her head. She looked up at him just as her unrounded himself and let out a bunch of water spill all over her. Akane yelled as the water came down and Luffy rounded up again bouncing away cackling. The water splashed all over her getting her wet once again and everyone stopped seeing her stand still and then put a hand to her face. Instead of finding her crying she smoothed her hair back to find a big laughing grin across her face as she chased after the bouncing Luffy. But then gave up jumping in the water again and sinking low enough so that the water was just under her nose.

"So Miss Akane, how long have you been running this lovely hotel?" Ace asked appearing right next to her.

"All of about seven years I think" she scratched her head hoping she was right.

"I must say this is a great hotel, worth the money" he dipped his head at her while she smiled.

"Thank you I was hoping that it would be, the first year of owning this place was a wreck, all of the grand stuff like the sauna, hot spring, and tea room weren't here until five years ago" she said laying on her back in her water.

"So were you from originally?" he asked making her loose concentration on floating.

"Sorry, I don't give out personal information" she gave a wink and small smile.

"So no body knows your story?" he asked leaning in slightly.

"Nope, no one" she lied with Shinnosuke coming to mind.

"Mysterious, I like that" Ace breathed softly as he continued to lean in.

"Hey Ace, come over here, Luffy says he wants to play a game" Sanji suddenly called him in.

Akane blushed at herself getting caught up in such an act. Just like the boys on the island, just like every single one of them. Ace grunted to himself and Akane backed up looking at the water as he strides his way over to the guys. Making her way over, Akane saw they were planning on playing the game called Marco-Polo. Ussop was Marco while everyone else was Polo. He ducked his head under the water while everyone held in giggles and ran away before he surfaced again. He started headed toward Chopper who looked both ways for an escape route before climbing on the wall silently and out of his reach. Ussop felt the rocks and turned the other way finally letting Chopper let go of the breath of air he was holding. Akane was standing by Zolo who was grumbling about how stupid of a game this was. Seeing Ussop run their way, Akane ducked under the water and disappeared behind Zolo waiting for the perfect time. Just as Zolo was going to dodge Ussop, she grabbed Zolo by his sides and started to tickle him. Zolo was actually pretty ticklish and Zolo ran even faster towards them and right when Ussop was close enough, Akane pushed Zolo into Ussop and ran away laughing.

"I'm going to kill her!" a red faced Zolo yelled his eyes darting onto Akane hiding behind Sanji.


	5. Chapter 5

The game went on and on until their toes looked like raisins and they decided to get out. Akane dressed in her robe once again wrapping her long hair in the towel going up into her room to get changed into pajamas of a dark blue slong sleeve shirt with a white tang top under and black pajama short shorts. She was too tired to go down below and enjoy a couple cups of beer but decided to go check on her grandpa. Looking in, Grandpa Ken was awake just staring of into space and decided to start reading the book. She took a seat next to his bed and opened the book and started.

Grandpa Ken closed his eyes with a slight smile as he absorbed the words letting them paint a picture into his mind. His focus was all on Akane's voice reading out to him. The sound was so smooth and fluid without a stutter as far as he heard. In his mind he could see the island the brother and sister lived on with the high mountains covered with the thick trees and brush covered with exotic flowers. He could se the small houses they lived in that made the small village just near the short of the ocean where boats could come on and out daily. The smell of sea salt and fresh breeze was all around him as the crash of waves drowned out Akane's voice letting him hear the seagulls bicker as they flew through the sky.

"Are you okay Grandpa?" she asked knocking him out of his trance.

"Yes I am fine" he grunted.

"As the sun broke across the crisp blue sky..." Akane was interrupted.

"That will be all for now Akane, I want to save some for tomorrow night" he stopped her.

"Okay, that seems fair" she smiled putting a book mark where she was.

"Night Grandpa" she whispered before kissing his forehead.

She turned off his light and closed his door softly making sure not to disturb his sleep. Then she jogged down the stairs to her room and flopped onto her bed snuggling into her yellow comforter.

Two weeks passed with the straw hates staying at the Sakurai Hotel. They were actually very comfortable to be around and every one of them thought of Shinnosuke and Akane a couple. They reassured them that Shinnosuke was her guardian which made them raise eyebrows seeing that they were the same age. They found out about down below and were invited to each night having the best of fun. Nami and Robin became especial friend to Akane while the guys were friends to Shinnosuke except Chopper and Ussop they were mostly friend with Akane. Akane liked to call Chopper her bay since he was so small and cute. While Nami, Robin, and Akane liked to call Ussop their gay friend.

"Hi Grandpa Ken" Nami and Robin greeted.

"Why hello, nice to see you again" he smiled kindly.

"How are you?" Robin asked seeing that the cane wasn't helping much and Akane had to hold him up.

"I feel as healthy as a horse" he joked right as he fell into a fit of dry coughs.

"Come on Grandpa, sorry girls I have to get him back to bed" Akane apologized.

"Bye Grandpa Ken!" Nami and Robin waved as they left.

Akane tucked him in and made him drink his medicine and broth again before letting him lay peacefully. She took out the book again and began to read getting to the part where the sister had been sold to a pirate and was now sailing to an island called Kismark where her brother was being captive. By the sound of her grandpa snoring she smiled and put the book mark back into place setting it on to the night stand and going down to the cash register. Looking out she saw it was almost sun down and some people were starting to already group around. Akane let people go down below as she saw Shinnosuke approach her.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Why don't you go start everything Miss Akane? I'll greet everyone" he smiled.

"No, its okay, I got this" she shook her head.

"Well then I'll just stand here and talk to you Miss Akane" he said leaning against the wall behind her.

"That's okay, so how's life Shinnosuke?" she asked not looking over her shoulder.

"I'm living, and I'm well" he simply stated.

"That's good, I can't be having my guardian dying on me" she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Am I not a friend?" he asked jokingly.

"No you're not a friend, you're my most trusted best friend" she said turning to him with a smile.

"As you are mine" he smiled as Akane leaned her head on his chest.

Down below everything was the same with the loud music and laughing that shook the very stone walls. Stomping was heard of the energetic people cheering on the arm wrestling contests. Stench of sweat and testosterone had been going unnoticed by the people enjoying themselves as they guzzled down mugs of liquor. Akane and Nami were dancing around in circles with their arms linked. They laughed as they skipped around in their circle with their free hand holding beer mugs that spilled as they danced. Shinnosuke was sitting on a stool with Ace and Zolo watching as Sanji tried to swoon a girl into dating him. Chopper was drinking a cup of juice while Ussop got ready for an arm wrestling contest.

"So Shinnosuke how long have you known Akane?" Ace asked Shinnosuke.

"About over nine years" he simply answered.

"Are you guys from here?" Ace asked trying to get something out of him.

"No we are not, we come from a different island far from here" Shinnosuke said actually getting quite irritated.

"So what do you know about her?" Ace bluntly asked.

"I know that the Akane you see today and have been seeing if not the Akane I first meet. When I first met her she was short-tempered, self-conscience, and stressed. Since we have come to this island almost eight years ago I helped her with her temper by training her that dressing that showed more skin and not knocking out boys into the high heavens when they as you say 'checked her out' would help with her temper and her self-esteem. Since then she has become flirty, comfortable, and relaxed" Shinnosuke explained watching as Akane and Nami continued to dance.

"Did she ever have anyone special to her, I mean like I know that you're her guardian and best friend, but has she ever had anything more than that?" Ace explained blushing slightly.

"She has vowed never to fall in love with anyone, ever" Shinnosuke sort of sighed sadly.

"Why is that?" Ace raised any eyebrow.

"That is not for me to tell" Shinnosuke said before hopping off the stool to grab another mug of beer.

Ace looked at Akane now dancing with Luffy in an awkward tango dance. She was laughing hysterically throwing her head back as Luffy tried spinning her. He was just observing the way she looked compared to Luffy. She was so small and tiny but he could see her muscles ripple as she moved around the dance floor. Her hair went to her waist and could cloak around her body whenever Luffy spun her around. She was so darn pretty with her deep red lips and golden honey eyes against her pale milk like skin. And her body was sexy especially with the way she dressed it just made her seemed wild and seductive.

Suddenly Akane was pulled away from the dance floor and put on top of a wooden table above everyone else. A big man with arms the size of Ace shut everyone up holding Akane's tiny hand in his own holding her steady. All eyes went on Akane as she stood on top of the wooden table.

"Does anybody remember what today is?" the big 300 pound man asked.

"It's the seventh anniversary of Sakurai!" someone yelled in the crowd.

"Exactly it's been seven total years since this hotel had been built and its all thanks to this little lady, and you all know that just because she's small doesn't mean she ain't the toughest, strongest, most bad of us all and with that we would like to give our thanks" he asked bowing his head to her.

"Thank you Gunner" she said hugging his shoulders.

Gunner, the 300 pound muscle man, helped Akane down. He stated talking to Akane in whispered which had her distracted not knowing that the table behind her moved. Akane heard him talking about all this thanks of the hotel and how beautiful it was along with the variety of the bar. No one spoke a word as four men holding two barrels of water sneaked up behind her getting ready for Gunner to move. He ended the quiet talk with a 'and to thank you we would like to show you our thanks' he said and then quickly pulled himself away. At that moment Akane looked at everyone with their eyes still on her and their big eyes as if they were waiting for something big to happen. With a curious 'what' Akane got her answer as the two barrels were dumped on her from behind drenching her from head to toe. Everyone broke out in laughs as Akane smoothes back her hair to show her grinning face and turned to see the man with the barrels. They laughed patting Akane's back as she laughed as well not minding that she was drenched. The time was carried on with drinking, laughing, dancing, and singing as usual for the time of the night.


	6. Chapter 6

Akane got up and changed into dark blue plaid shorts and a black spaghetti strap shirt with her usual ankle lace up boots. She gave her grandpa Ken his medicine and gave him a bowl full of broth before going down to do her daily duties. Akane cleaned up down below; all the glass, broken tables, the beer spills, swept up the dirt, and the blood marks from the quarrels, if there ever where any. She replaced the mugs, the tables, and stools that were broken and even noted to her to buy some air freshener for the smell. Then almost as soon as she made that mental note, Malian, one of her workers, came rushing down to inform her that Viktor was there. She groaned and marched up the stairs and grabbed her nun-chuck from under the cash register counter and putting them in her back belt loop.

"What do you want Viktor?" she asked the man on the horse.

Viktor was the playboy son of the richest man of the Island, Sir Liam Van Wunder. Sure he was good looking and rich but he was an air head and a selfish greedy playboy. Almost a year after Akane came to the island and made the hotel, he's had the hots for her in making her his concubine. Quite frankly that wasn't in Akane's best of interest and turned him down every single time. He didn't give up and went as far as sent a ninja in her bed room while she was sleeping and try to hypnotize her. Good thing Akane was letting this girl that was drop dead wasted sleep in her room. When Akane walked in from her bathroom and saw the ninja, the ninja was lucky to still have his face and legs after she was done interrogating him.

Viktor was good looking with soft light brown hair and dark green eyes, but like she said he was greedy. Plus since he was rich he had access to his father's minions. He had access whenever he wanted, just as he did right now, with them pointing arrows at her or pulling their katanas from their sheaths. Her eyes hardened seeing them trying to intimidate her. Her hand was ready to snatch her nun-chuck and beat the living hell out of them.

"You know what I want, dear Akane" he snickered upon his dark brown horse.

"Well you can't have me" she growled in a way that it sounded like a cat hissing.

"You shouldn't make that face, it'll ruin your beauty" he smirked blowing a slight air kiss at her.

"Just like my fist will ruin your face" she threw back.

"Look around you my dear you're outnumbered by four to one, don't you think you should just give up and surrender to me or do you think you can actually win?" he smirked with a gleam in his eye.

"Is that a dare?"She asked with a smirk her hand grabbing the handles of her nun-chucks.

Before Viktor could answer Akane grabbed her nun-chucks and ran straight for the first of his minions. The minion pulled out his katana and went to strike out at Akane but Akane slide down the ground below him and kicked his stomach with a booted foot. He staggered back and Akane got up ramming her shoulder into his stomach taking him to the ground where she just somersaulted over him. She took her nun-chucks and started to spin them around to the side of her seeing a circle of minions form around her. Several came at her at once swinging katana that she just jumped and slide between. Landing behind them she used her nun-chucks to chock one of them from behind and use as a shield. Using the minion as a shield she was able to trick the others in her attacks and even control the body with the katana.

Viktor was going anxious seeing his beautiful Akane beat his father's minions. He watched as she threw the person she was using as a shield into the air and kicked his back sending him into a group of other minions. She was actually winning against all of his minions, they were specially trained assassins and they were loosing, how could they be loosing? He expected them to beat Akane and stop hem before she was too beaten up and then take her in to his mansion as his prisoner. But no here she was without a scratch as people from her hotel began to file out and cheer her on. He groaned and gave his archers an order.

"Archers, fire arrows at the hotel!" he yelled pointing to her grand hotel.

Akane turned hearing that and saw the archers dip their arrows into a fluid and then take spark rocks and set them on fire. Her eyes widened seeing the fire arrows fly through the sky and hit her hotel. She screamed seeing as it burst into flames and shoved the person she was attacking telling the others that were outside to helped evacuate everyone outside of the hotel. Seeing the straw hat gang she yelled at them to help the others and continued her fight.

Inside Grandpa Ken could hear the fighting outside and slipped out of bed and stood up with his cane weakly walking to the window He coughed as he opened it to see Akane surrounded in a crowd of people with katanas. He watched as she fought using the katanas he passed down to her. He smiled remembering when she begged him to teach her the art when she first came to the island.

"_Grandpa Kenshin, you are a master of the art in wielding nun-chucks please teach me" she bowed to him._

"_So you want to learn, do you?" he smiled at her._

"_Yes I want to be stronger than I am now and I want to learn something new for me to practice and get better at, I don't want to be weak and untalented anymore" she dipped her head even lower._

"_Then let's begin" he smiled standing up._

_He remembered how happy she was when he agreed to teach her. She worked hard and long practicing to become stronger. She would always have bruises and soar muscles from her practice of hours and hours to get better. _

He was distracted when a fire arrow came through his window and landed at his feet. Flames erupted and started spreading out more causing him to fall. He fell on his back against his bed and watched as the flames spread out in his room catching everything on fire. He began to panic as his breathing became deep and hoarse trying to get up and save himself. Instead he just fell on his face his deep breathing causing him to go in a deep fit of coughs. Black took over his vision rendering him unconscious.


	7. Chapter 7

Akane panicked as she saw people carrying other out of the flaming hotel trying to see if there was anyone still inside. She kicked the last minion in the jaw and didn't even bother to see if he was still conscious or not. Running over she looked though the many people trying to find her grandpa. Not seeing the frail old man she ran over to Zolo who just came out.

"Have you seen my grandpa?" she yelled grabbing the front of his shirt.

"I tired getting to his room, but it's all covered with flames, there's no way inside" he grunted setting the two kids he was carrying on the ground.

"What do you mean no way?" she yelled frantic.

"I mean the whole hallway was covered in flames and the floor is almost all burnt out, there's no way to get her and get back down alive" he explained seeing her worried face.

"I'll find a way" she muttered to herself.

She ran through the front entrance as Robin and Sanji came running out. They yelled putting the people they were carrying down to run back in after Akane, but instead the door frame came falling down blocking the way. They staggered back and looked up seeing the whole front entrance was blocked. Akane and her grandpa were about the only people still in there, and her grandpa's room was on the thirteenth floor, there was no way she could get him and then run down before the whole hotel came crashing down. Sanji looked at Shinnosuke who was standing there looking at the hotel. He growled stomping over and socking Shinnosuke across the face.

"Why didn't you go after her, now she's going to get herself killed!" Sanji yelled as Shinnosuke who held his bruising face.

"Have more faith in Miss Akane, she has talent of her own" Shinnosuke bluntly stated rubbing his soar cheek.

Akane staggered up the engulfed stairs covered her face from the flames. She ran up as quickly as she could just as the stairs came crashing down behind her. She screamed as she fell her lower body dangling from the broken stairway. She gritted her teeth allowing only her hands to change as they started to grow claws for nails digging into the stairs for help. Akane pulled herself up and rolled onto her back changing her nails back. Akane ran up the rest of stair and saw indeed that the hallway to her grandpa's room was covered in flames. She gave a yelled as she jumped allowing her whole body to change.

Her body became slender and began to grow hair in the color of light golden brown with black spots. A tail began to go matching her back pattern as she pounced over the fires and landed before pouncing again with incredible speed. Getting to the door of her grandpa she ripped it open and saw her grandpa on the ground unconscious.

"Grandpa!" she yelled shaking him to get him to wake up.

He grunted letting Akane know that he was okay. She kneeled down with her back to him taking his arms and throwing them over her shoulder. Then with his help she put his arms around her waist in a piggy back position. She gritted her teeth standing straight with the weight of her grandpa on her back. Opening the door again she saw the hallway had fallen leaving them stranded. She closed it again looked around for a way to get out when she saw the window. She took a deep breath telling her grandpa to hold on. With a sigh she relaxed her body to let it change as it grew muscular but slender changing it into the color of light brown with big paws and a fluffy tail. A big furry mane grew around her thick muscular neck as she crouched down onto all fours, her mouth becoming long and whiskers growing. A loud growl rippled through from her lips as she started to run to the window with big powerful leaps.

Her large body crashed through the window just as the whole floor came crashing down. She let her large feline body soar through the air for a bit before changing back into regular form and landing on the ground on one knee. She panted standing up walking weary to put her grandpa somewhere to sit. Some people took her from her back and she dropped to the floor on her knees looking over her shoulder at the burning hotel. She dropped her head hearing it crash down into nothing. All her hard work, time, blood, and tears went into that hotel to keep it going; now it's gone.

She found Shinnosuke to her side helping her to her feet leading her somewhere to sit out of the way of the people dumping water on the burning mound. Her eyes kept to the floor seeing the many people carry buckets of water and pouring them on the flames. Smoke carried to the air getting in peoples lungs making them cough violently. Shinnosuke squatted in front of Akane making her knock out of her trance. Looking at him, she broke down in tears crying into his chest clutching onto his grey T-shirt.

"I put all my hard work into that hotel to keep it from going bankrupt or going out of business, now its gone, all my hard work is gone" she cried.

"You did what you could" he comforted.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but Akane your grandfather" Chopper interrupted.

Akane pulled herself from Shinnosuke and ran to her grandfather's side. Looking him over she saw his leg was badly burned. Before she had come the arrow came through his window when he was looking out and the arrow came to his feet burning his leg in the process. It was black while Chopper gently rubbed an ointment on it and wrapped it with bandages. Her grandpa hissed at the pain gripping onto Akane's hand.

"Akane, it's a third degree burn, if we don't get the right medicine it'll get infected and he could die" Chopper whispered.

"Akane I have something to tell you" Grandpa Ken whispered through his pain.

"Akane I've kept this a secret but I have cancer in my lungs and I'm going to die soon" he confessed.

"No Grandpa, don't kid around like this" Akane sniffled.

"The only thing that can save me is this" he said pulling a package from this robe he wore.

"Then we can use this" she said ready to get the medicine prepared.

"No, there's only enough for one and it's for you Akane" he stopped her.

"No Grandpa you need it, Chopper go and prepare this" Akane commanded shoving the package into Chopper's hands.

"No, Akane that one is for you, Chopper stop, I want you to go and get me one, it's called the jyumyou (life) herb, you know where it grows and how to get it, please Akane can you do this for me?" her Grandpa pleaded.

"I'll do it for you Grandpa" she nodded after a sniffle.


	8. Chapter 8

They took her grandpa to the hospital where he would be staying for the time being until Akane came back. She stood on the pier with her arms crossed over her chest with the package held in one hand. Looking at it, she opened up the coarse paper seeing the herb her father was talking about. It was a dried out blue herb with all these leaves that looked hearts. She sighed putting it back in the paper and folding it back up and putting it in the hands of a person that was looking after her grandpa.

"Here, give this back to my grandfather, leave it in his care" Akane instructed before the girl took off.

"You ready Akane?" Shinnosuke asked grabbing one of her shoulders.

"Yeah, let's go" she sighed grabbing the back pack.

Luffy had agreed to take her to the island to get the herb she needed and bring her back to save her grandpa. Robin and Nami were okay with sharing a room with her and Ussop was okay with sharing with Shinnosuke. She dumped her pack on the new hammock that Sanji had gladly put in for her. She threw this simple light blue blanket on the hammock and a small pillow. Going on the deck where everyone was. Akane stood against the railing with her arms crossed over her chest before grabbing onto one of the ropes and letting herself onto the railing balancing. She began to balance on the railing walking around with her hands in her pockets looking at the ocean.

Ace was across the deck watching her as she walked on the railing with a cat like balance. Then the way she simply skipped off landing on her boots without a sound was very cat like as well. She her steps made no sound as she walked to the front of the deck leaning on the railing. Ace continued to watch following her long lean legs to the curve of her bottom to the curve of her back to the back of her head. He saw from under her clothes that she was really petite and didn't have the biggest of assets but her body was really toned and petite. Then she stood back up and went down below.

"Sanji" she called going into the kitchen.

"Yes my angel princess?" he happily asked with hearts in her eyes.

"I'm kind of hungry, can you cook me something?" she asked innocently.

"Of course my princess" he giggled getting the stove ready.

She sat on the counter watching him cook. He started with his small piece of beef in a pan sautéing with some onions, garlic, bell pepper, and some kind of seasoning. She watched as he flipped it all around pouring in red wine before starting to make a type of pasta and rice. Her eyes were in amazement setting the piece of piece of the bed of rice next to the pasta. He poured her a cup of wine handing the plate and the cup of wine. She thanked him taking a small bite and almost gave out a big moan at the taste exploding into her mouth.

"This is amazing Sanji" she breathed after taking a sip of wine.

"Anything for my princess" he kissed her hand before Nami called him from the deck.

She was left alone in the kitchen eating her food enjoying it very much that she didn't inhale it to savor the food. Taking sips of wine she saw Zolo enter the kitchen muttering about 'stupid cook' and went looking for some beer. Akane cleared her throat showing the bottle of wine and grabbed an extra glass. He looked at her as she hopped of the counter and poured wine in the extra cup handing it to him. He took it gingerly and guzzled it all down in one drink. Akane poured him some more and took her one refilling it and taking a small sip.

"So do you know where we're going exactly?" he asked as she returned to her counter to eat.

"To an island called Tendo Island, the Tendo family founded it and has been passing the island down for generations as an inheritance to keep the island under the rule of the Tendo's" she explained turning back to her food.

"And that's where the herb is?" he asked

"Yes but it only grows in one place on the island, the garden on the Tendo palace, and somehow I have to find a way in there and get it" she sighed wishing she could just give the medicine that she needed to her grandpa.

She took another sip of wine finishing her food and dumping the plate in the sink to be washed and drank the rest of her wine. Zolo had put the wine away and was now drinking down a mug of beer as she left wiping her mouth on the back of her hand going to her room and laying on her hammock. Akane coughed feeling her heart thump loudly in her chest as a head ache came on and she held her head falling in a deep sleep.

"Akane, Akane wake up" a voice whispered in her head.

"Huh?" she asked laying up now being awoke.

"It's morning, you survived your first day on board with the straw hats, and how do you feel?" Luffy asked with a grin.

"Tired" she groaned laying down.

"Ahh Akane, come on get up" Luffy whined.

"Alright , let me get dressed" she sighed defeated.

Luffy left and let her get dressed. She pulled out her back and took out the new clothes she bought since all of her other clothes were burned. Akane got dressed in a long sleeve yellow button up that was sort of see through with a ruffle that covered her hands. She wore a white bandage top underneath and tucked it into her black high waist shorts. Akane hopped up the stairs to the deck putting on her ankle lace up boots. The sun broke across her face blinding her as she went up to the deck. Luffy was there with Ussop who was telling him of his many adventures on his home island.

On the deck Akane leaned against the railing next to Ace who seemed to be off in his own world until she appeared by him. He looked at her staring off to the wide ocean as the ship rocked back and forth, the sound of the ways slapping against the ship. He looked at her as she closed her eyes to enjoy the sound of the waves and the birds flying over head squalling. Akane breathed in the deep scent of the sea with the taste of salt on her tongue, God it felt good to be sailing again. She missed sailing, the adventure, the exploring of land with Shinnosuke. Even if she only sailed for a year and a half, she loved the adventures she went on and the people she met. But after a few incidents and upon finding her grandpa, Akane finally settled down and stopped sailing.

"So how do you know about this herb and where it grows?" Ace asked breaking her concentration.

"I used to sail and I went to Tendo island for a little while and I meet the grand Tendo family, they're nice people" Akane sighed.

"What's the island like?" he inquired seeing her face shine a bit.

"It's always sunny there but there area few times a year when it rains, but the rain's always really light. There are wild flowers and trees growing everywhere and the town is so big when you get there and if you follow a road that goes through the forest you can find the Tendo palace. But if you go down even farther you can find another town that's home for making the sweetest of fruit candy from the wild fruit that grows in the forest. Everyone there is so nice but there are a few loons there that will make you raise an eyebrow" Akane smiled softly to herself.

"Sounds like a nice place" Ace sighed picturing it in his mind.

"Yeah, it is" Akane whispered to herself.

"_What kind you like Akane dear?" she heard her mother ask._

"_Can I have the strawberry cinnanin bowl?" five year old Akane asked._

"_Of course Honey, today's your day" her mother smiled._

"_Thank you Mommy" Akane smiled hugging her mom's waist._

"_Anything for my little baby" Akane heard her mother giggled petting her head.  
Her mother looked so beautiful in her light orange sun dress with her curly blue hair pulled back. A string of pearls was wrapped around her neck three times hanging loose but it still draped across her dress. Sakurai, her mother, her look was so simple yet it made all the guy's heads turn as she walked through the town. Little Akane was so envy of her mother's beauty and always wished to be as beautiful as her mother was; Akane still does._

'I miss you Mom' Akane thought to herself closing her eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

A hand on her shoulder made her turn sharply to see that Ace was still there. He raised an eyebrow having not think that she was in deep thought but the look on her face made her think other wise. Ace had really scared Akane making her grab her heavily beating heart hoping that it was just from him surprising her and not another one of her chest pains. Letting her calm down for a second before he told her that they had hit land.

"What island?" she asked thinking that Tendo Island wasn't at least another four or five day journey.

"It's called Jurgen Island" Nami shrugged as they docked.

Akane gasped remembering that she had come upon this island before. Shinnosuke, who had come from the kitchen, looked at her having heard the name and wondered what she was going to do. Ace heard her gasp and was about to ask what, when she said that she needed to go do something and pulled Shinnosuke down below. He raised an eyebrow and Nami just shrugged walking down the plank that lead to the soft sand.

"Are you going down to the island?" Shinnosuke asked.

"No, you know that Hilde lives here and if she finds me we might as well let the whole world know that I'm here, because if she finds me then there's going to be a town celebration and that celebration will brings news around the island of the girl that saved the island from the Jurgen monster returns and that news will get to Tendo island and Tendo island will send a search party for me" Akane panicked.

She kept on blabbering on and on until Shinnosuke grabbed her shoulders and covered her mouth. Akane instantly quieted down with big eyes as Shinnosuke instructed her to breathe slowly in and out. She followed as he instructed until he took his hand off her mouth when she was calm.

"I have to say after nine years you still jump to conclusions" Shinnosuke said massaging her shoulders.

"I just don't want to be found" Akane sighed dipping her head.

"Well I can go on the island I'll just be the one to buy the things you need and you can go disguised, if your body can handle it" he suggested.

"Yeah I can, don't worry, here's some money" she said digging from her pocket some money.

As soon as he grabbed it Akane sighed letting her body relax and letting it morph down. It became much smaller than her original form as she went down on all fours. Her clothes and skin was replaced by thick dark midnight blue fur along with a long slender tail. Her face became furry as well and whiskers poked from her cheeks as her nose and mouth became slightly longer. In her place was a small midnight blue house cat at Shinnosuke's feet. She meowed at him standing for a 'let's go' before skipping to the deck. He followed after her as she meowed at him over her shoulder as a 'hurry, come on'.

She made no noise as she patted down the plank down into the soft sand where Zolo, Ace, and Sanji were strapping the boat down so it wouldn't float away. Akane didn't pay any attention to them as she skipped a little harder due to the sand. Zolo asked where the cat came from and Shinnosuke just shrugged saying she was a stowaway that he found. Akane could hear Zolo grunt about not liking cats and went back to his work. Akane just kept skipping along looking for stores that sold clothes, herbs, books, and such other necessities. Finding a clothing store she skipped in with Shinnosuke in tow. He scooped her up after her tail almost being stepped on and set her on his shoulder petting her back. Akane purred lightly searching around for what she needed before spotting it and bouncing off towards it.

She jumped into the pile, using her teeth to pick out the ones she wanted and using her back legs to push them into a pile. Shinnosuke followed having lost her for a bit until she meowed and he found her next to the pile with a grin. He looked at the pile of what she need and blushed pointing a finger about to tell her that he wasn't about to buy those for her. She grabbed them with her teeth and jumped on his shoulder dumping them on his shoulder before going to lick his cheek and meowed as a way of saying 'I love you Shinnosuke'. He blushed defeated and went to the cashier dumping them on the counter and dumping the amount of money needed unable to look at the cashier's face. Shinnosuke grabbed his change and the bag and then swiftly left the shop holding his head down.

"You owe me" he whispered to Akane still on his shoulder.

Shinnosuke just followed Akane into the stores buying what she needed and swiftly needing. He bought books, bounds of herbs, even clothes and an extra pair of boots. He was starting to get tired until Akane went on her back paws and meowed a few times and then bite his hand making him drop the bags. She took the bags in her teeth then yanked them around so they fitted around her back and started meowing at him again. Taking the meows as a 'Thanks for helping me, you can get what you needed, I'm going back to the ship' shrugged and went about his business.

The crew was out either shopping or going to eat leaving Akane the whole ship. Changing back into her regular self Akane dropped the bags off into her room and took the herbs out. Hunting the kitchen thoroughly she grabbed a strainer and a pot to begin boiling some water. The cooks at the hotel had helped her learn a few things in cooking so she was able to cook on her own. Letting the water boil she chopped up a few herbs and put them in the strainer and put that in the water. Seeing the water turn a dark golden color she took the strainer out and dumped the herbs into sink and washed them down the garbage disposal. Then letting the broth cool down, she drank it all down chocking on the taste. Some of the broth spilling from the side onto her cheeks, she didn't stop until it was all gone.

Gasping she put the bowl into the sink and cleaned her face. Akane closed her eyes waiting for the effects of the broth to sink in. After a few minutes, she felt it all and went crumpling down to the ground in a ball. Giving a shudder she gasped feeling the herbs act against the devil's fruit. Yes Akane ate a devil's fruits giving her the ability to transform into felines of any kind, but ate only half of a Neko-Neko no mi, and having eaten only half it was taking a toll on her body. The constant changing that she did was messing with her body; messing with her muscles, her tissue, her bones, and her heart. Shinnosuke knew since he was there when she ate it and found out about the fruit, and he was doing what he could to keep her alive. It was his ideas to have her start drinking the herbs that would trick her heart into thinking that nothing was wrong and tricking her body into thinking it was used to the changes.

When it was finally all over, she gasped catching her breath and standing up with shaky legs letting out an uneasy breathe. Akane grabbed her head suddenly tired and threw herself into her hammock pulling the blanket over her body. Kicking her ankle boots off to get more comfortable, Akane was glad she got a new pair since the ones she had now were getting to tight .Laying her head on the soft pillow she closed her eyes and in an instant she was asleep.


	10. Chapter 10

"Miss Akane, are you okay?" Akane heard Chopper's sweet voice ask.

"Yes, I'm okay Chopper, honey" she sighed getting up from the floor.

Akane looked to see her hammock was overturned and her pillow and blanket were on the ground along with her. She rubbed the back of her head fixing her clothes and hammock before going up on the deck with Chopper holding her hand. Chopper was pulled aside by Ussop to tell him this story of him battling a large fish. Meanwhile Akane went to lean against the railing enjoying the feel of the cool breeze against her face.

"Luffy says we'll be staying here for a while to stock up on supplies" Ace informed her.

"Thanks for the memo" she smiled with her eyes closed

"How come you didn't go to town?" he asked making her stop to think for a bit.

"I didn't feel well and had Shinnosuke go and buy the things I needed" she half lied

"Can you tell me something?" Ace asked

"What's the story of your tattoos and scars?" he asked pointing to her legs.

On Akane's legs was a long scar from her left ankle going half way up her calf. Around her ankle was a tattoo of a string of pearls wrapped loosely around three times. The string of pearls had a tiny sakura blossom pedant tattooed upon the top of her foot. On her right leg was another scar going diagonally across her knee cap. Her shin had multiple scars going from her outer right ankle upwards towards her knee. Around her right thigh was a band of feathers hanging down from a dark blue ribbon tied with the bow on her outer thigh. Both her feet had little bows at the end of her feet. On her left foot was a red bow, it was a deep bold red and was a lot more flamboyant with gold stripes. On her right foot was a much more simple dark blue lace bow.

"This pearl tattoo is a tribute to my mom, her favorite piece of jewelry was this long string of pearls she would wear and the sakura blossom is because her nickname is Sakura. I got the feathers with the ribbon is because these feathers are bald eagle feather and if handed given a bald eagle feather is a rewarding item from above and the ribbon is me. So this tattoo basically says that my mother is still with me. And the bows are a secret" Akane explained as Nami listened in.

"Did they hurt?" Nami asked even though she had one of her own.

"In the very beginning it hurt but then it gets numb and you can't feel it anymore" Akane shrugged.

"Shinnosuke has his own tattoos" Akane smirked seeing Shinnosuke sweep the deck.

"Where?" Nami asked as Shinnosuke looked around hearing his name.

"Right here, we got matching tattoos" Akane said pulling his shirt over his head.

On Shinnosuke's back was a tattoo of a four hour head beast with a sharp white sort of thing in the middle of it. The white thing had a small black line coming from the point. Akane lifted her shirt enough to show her ribs to show another four headed beast and a weirdly shaped cylinder with a black line. Standing on her tip toes to put her ribs against his ribs they saw the tattoos combined to show an eight headed dragon creature with a white horn attached to a black string necklace wrapped around the beast.

"We got this together, three hours on the chair" Akane said pulling her shirt back down.

"Why did you guys think of a four headed beast and a horn necklace wrapped around it?" Ussop asked having notice the tattoo pattern.

"It's a secret" Shinnosuke put a finger to his lips just as Akane nodded.

After the explanation of all the tattoos they have especially Shinnosuke's tattoo of an old man who, he explained, was his grandfather living back on the island. He had gotten it to remember who his grandpa was cause even though Akane helped saved his life and memory; it was habit of forgetting his grandfather. With them anime falling at the explanation Akane went down to her room again taking the match box out and putting it into her backpack. She changed out of her clothes and into her blue plaid short shorts with a black tight t-shirt and white suspenders. Akane rolled the sleeves up and tucked the black t-shirt into her plaid shorts and looked at her new boots. They were made of black leather going to her ankles like her old ones. Unlike her old boots, these ones had a leather black bow on the back of the ankle which Akane thought was cute. With her old boots in hand she went into the kitchen and dumped them into the trash can just as she saw Sanji cooking.

"Hey Sanji need a hand?" she asked over his shoulder.

"My princess not to worry I got things handled here, I don't want you to get your beautiful hands dirty" Sanji spoke grabbing her hands.

"Okay Sanji, just let me know if you need any help" she smiled taking her hands back.

She went back on the deck and looked at the island with a sigh. Akane ran back down to her room seeing Robin there asleep. Making sure not to make any noise Akane relaxed her body before she did her change and took the form of a dark blue house cat. She a patter she went up on the deck as Nami took site of her and squealed picking her up.

"Isn't she adorable?" Nami asked petting her head.

Ussop looked at her with a curious face until she gave out a cute meow with a smile and Ussop melted at her cuteness. She jumped on his shoulder rubbing her head into his cheek purring as he squealed petting her back. 'Haha this is funny' Akane thought as she jumped down and began to make her way towards town. Akane sat on the ground for a while looking for a way to see the town and not be grabbed. Looking she saw a stack of barrels leading to the rooftops and gave a cat like smile. She made her way to the barrels and jumped on top with her cat like grace until she made her way to the roof tops and started to skip around.

The town looked the same since she left. It looked so happy and peaceful since she and Shinnosuke had gotten rid of the monster that invaded its forest eating the plant life and the forest creatures within. Looking around she stopped when she saw a statue at the edge of the forest and sat on the roof looking at it. Not being able to make a shape out of it, Akane jumped down until she found ground and skipped her way over. Her small feline face looked at the statue seeing the statue was of Shinnosuke and her.

The statue was of the great monster on the ground defeated. Shinnosuke stood with a leg on top of the creatures back while he placed his broomstick firmly in the ground. Akane had been seated on one of Shinnosuke's shoulders while he held her knees to keep her up there. Akane had on arm back with her hand in a fist while her other arm was stretched in front of her with her flat open hand tilted so her thumb was parallel with the ground. Looking at it, she didn't realize a child was by her looking at the statue with her.

"Miss Kitty, this is a statue of our great heroes, Mr. Shinnosuke and Miss Akane, they saved our island from the monster we called Myou Kaibutsu (life monster) because it ate the forest and the forest creatures until they saved us from it. My mommy says we owe them our lives and we are grateful" the child says making Akane look at the child.

Her brown eyes widened knowing who the child was. The curly brown messy hair, dark pink eyes, freckle nose, and the stitched up old doll was too recognizable. It was Hilde's youngest son, Max. He looked so grown up from when she last saw him almost eight years ago. Max looked to be at least eleven now, when she last saw him he was three just learn how to use the toilet. She looked at the doll he held, it was the doll she made him when she came to the island. It wasn't the best thing ever, but Akane was proud of it. It was a brown stitched up puppy doll with a white belly and a white under paws. The left eye had a blue patch having run out of white and brown material. It was under stuffed but it made a good pillow for the boy when he was younger and would use it in his nap times.

"Miss Akane had made me this before she left, it's my most cherished item, but I wish I could see her again so we can go and get married" Max smiled hugging it to his chest with a grin.

'Oh Max' Akane thought.

Akane got up and patted her way back to the roof tops and laid on her belly feeling her body transform back into her original shape. She sat on her ankle for a little bit with her head dipped down and hand on the shingled roof. With a shaky breath she stood up on the roof grabbing people's attention before hopping down from the roof and landing on one knee. People whispered as she approached Max small figure from behind. Max was captivated with the statue wishing he could see Akane again until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning to see who it was, he gasped seeing beautiful woman with long blue hair and sparkling brown eyes. Then his eyed widened looking at the statue and back to the woman smiling down at him.

"Miss Akane!" he yelled hugging her waist.

"Hi Max" she whispered ruffling his messy hair.


	11. Chapter 11

Behind them the whispered stopped hearing Max call her Miss Akane. Then a cheered broke out of their returning hero and surrounded the blue haired girl. She picked Max up and put her on her shoulders as she got pats on the back of welcoming and hugs of thanks. With Max helped she found her way to Hilde's workshop of blacksmith along with the crowd following around them.

Hilde was working on a small knife for herself when she could hear a big commotion outside of her shop. Looking out from behind the fur hide that she used for a door she saw almost the whole town outside her shop. Hilde stopped her work and pushed aside the fur hide as the crowd parted to show her son on a stranger's shoulders. The stranger had long blue hair, pale skin, and brown eyes. Looking at the stranger with a raised eyebrow, she didn't stop approaching the stranger with a curious expression.

"Hey Hilde, long time no see" Akane greeted putting Max down.

"Miss Akane!" Hilde yelled enveloping the girl with a strong hug.

"Miss Akane!" Shinnosuke yelled grabbing Hilde's attention.

"Mr. Shinnosuke" Hilde yelled hugging his even tighter.

"Our heroes have returned!" a towns person cheered.

The straw hats were confused as they stood aside watching the townspeople praise the two. Suddenly they saw the townspeople started to carry Akane and Shinnosuke until they got a grand house and were dropped off only to be pulled inside by Hilde. The straw hats pushed their way through and into the house stopping to look where the others went. Following the trail of Akane's long hair turning around a corner they hurried fast after them.

"It's so good to see you two again, our village has been so peaceful and happy since you two have saved us, we must have a celebration in your honor" Hilde rambled until the last part caught Akane's attention.

"Ah no celebrations please, please treat us as if we were just typical explorers like when we first met" Akane insisted.

"But you're our heroes, no celebration shows we are not grateful of what you've done for us" Hilde gasped holding where her heart would be.

"What have they done?" Ussop asked when they finally caught up.

"They saved our town from complete mayhem of this monster that ate up our crops, forest, and our forest creature until they came and saved us, wait who are you guys?" Hilde asked finally noticing them.

"They're with us, don't worry, but please Hilde no celebrations we'll just probably go down and have a few drink with Vinny at the bar" Akane insist.

"Fine I guess, but don't expect people not wanting to show their gratitude and appreciation, but since you're here why don't you stay here with me and Max, he's been pretty lonely" Hilde said petting Max's messy hair.

"Of course we would love to" Akane smiled at Max making him hide behind his mother's leg.

"Wonderful, you two can get your old room and you guys will have to share I'm afraid unless one of you wants to share a room with Max" Hilde suggested.

"I will!" Luffy volunteered.

"Then it's settled" Hilde smiled.

"Yeah, you and me can play until we explode!" Luffy grinned at the hiding boy.

"We best are going if we want to make through this town alive" Shinnosuke suggested.

"Ah yes, off you two go now, have fun" Hilde grinned guiding them to the front door again.

The townspeople looked they were waiting for them as they exited the front doors as there was still a large crowd. Seeing their two young heroes they grabbed them again and were pulling them away as they handed them gifts and such trinkets. They insisted that they didn't nee the gifts and that the townspeople didn't need to give them such things. But still things were shoved into their arms as they were pushed along. Before they eve reached the pub owned by a large red bearded man they had to go back to Hilde's and drop the stuff off. Then onwards they went again to the pub and were welcomed by the people in the pub. The young heroes were given free drinks while the straw hats had to pay ever if they were friends.

"So you are very mysterious" Ace yelled to her over the loud drunk crowd.

"Not mysterious just secretive, there's a difference" Akane yelled back.

"So keep where you come from, your family, and meanings behind your tattoos secretive?" he asked.

"Yes, I keep things to myself that I don't think are important" she shrugged.

"And being a hero and savior isn't important?" He asked flabbergasted.

"These people here that Shinnosuke and I saved are important, but being a hero isn't and neither is being a savior, there are heroes and saviors every day we just recognize the ones that do the biggest things like killing a monster" Akane explained before taking a drink of the harsh liquor Vinny served her.  
"Oh my god, try this!" Akane made a face shoving the cup to Ace.

"That taste like what Chopper uses to clean cuts" Ace made a face smacking his lips.

"Oh God, here you can have this" Akane laughed giving it to some drunk person.

"So what else are you hiding?" Ace asked as Akane leaned against the bar counter.

"That's for me to know and you to never find out" Akane said before walking off and disappearing in the crowd.


	12. Chapter 12

Ace looked around the pub having lost sight of her. Shinnosuke's dark eyes looked having watched the whole thing and sighed knowing another sucker was lost. But then he sighed again knowing the feeling for when he first saw Akane and the faces of those who got lost in her beauty. He knew where she went but he left her to get some time to think by herself.

"_I have a proposition for you son in law" Cologne's old aged voice called._

"_I don't care, let Akane go!" HIS voice yelled making Akane's heart thump loudly._

"_OH I will, but let's start where this all began" Cologne's eyes narrowed._

_The area that they had been in changed to become a remote village in the Amazons with two pillars suspending a large thick tree trunk in the air between them, where it had all began. Ranma and Shampoo were standing on the suspended tree while Ranma was in girl from. Akane could see from being shackled and held down that Shampoo had her bon bon weapons out. _

"_If you defeat Shampoo I will let Akane go and we will never disturb you again, but if you don't you must take Shampoo as your bride and you tell your so called other 'fiancees' that you love Shampoo and will only marry her" Cologne bargained._

"_I beat Shampoo here once and I'll do it again" Ranma's squeaky girl voice yelled._

_With that Shampoo came running at Ranma with her bon-bon ready. Ranma jumped over her head and landed behind her to kick Shampoo off when she didn't see Shampoo. Instead she found herself on her back with Shampoo behind her on the floor with a leg extended out. 'How did she get behind me?' Ranma thought getting back up. _

_Shampoo was about to throw her bon-bon in Ranma's face when Ranma rolled to the side. Bringing a leg up to kick Shampoo in the side when she found her leg grabbed thrown forward, her back skidding across the tree. Ranma grunted opening her eyes and barely dodged a bon-bon flying at her face. Akane, on the ground, was so tired and weak having Cologne starved her before Ranma had found her on the battle ground where Shampoo and Cologne were waiting. _

_Akane could barely keep up with the battle going on but she knew something was wrong, Shampoo was much faster and she looked much stronger than she usually is. Not only that but with as much energy Akane could muster she saw Shampoo's aura was black; a raven's feather black. But as she saw the flicker of Shampoo's aura Akane heard a scream and saw red fly in front of her._

_It was Ra ma on the ground panting and sweating furiously. She was about to get up again and fight Shampoo but as soon as girl Ranma stood her legs gave out and she landed on her face. Akane moaned painfully Ranma's name when Cologne spoke._

"_You have lost son in law, now you must marry Shampoo" Cologne grinned._

_Akane expected Ranma to get up again and protest to fighting Shampoo again. She expected her to not give up and defeat Shampoo and win. Akane expected him to use some kind of move that he had been practicing or to just win using pure rage, she expected to do something. But when Ranma just laid then quiet, tears began to trickle down Akane's face. She called Ranma's name waiting for him to pop back up when she heard him mutter something._

"_I'm sorry Akane, I can't" she heard Ranma say._

"_Ranma" Akane cried quietly._

"_So you admit defeat, now you must take Shampoo as your bride" Cologne smiled._

"_Ranma, don't please don't give up, you can defeat Shampoo you have before you can defeat her again" Akane tried to encourage._

"_I can't Akane, not this time" Ranma quietly spoke getting on her knees._

"_You won't fight for me?" Akane spoke making him go quiet._

"He didn't fight for me" Akane spoke to herself quietly.

"_Akane?" Kasumi's sweet voice asked._

_Akane looked behind her to see her elder sister in her long white night gown with the light pink flower on the hem. Then she looked at herself and Shinnosuke, who had visited them for two weeks. Akane was dressed in jeans and a long sleeve shirt with a leather jacket while Shinnosuke in dark jeans and a sweater due to the cold weather of the year. They looked like they were going some where and the bags on their backs didn't help cover up their image. Instead of questioning what they were doing Kasumi handed them a backpack that they couldn't find on their way out._

"_Father almost found this but I was able to cover up" Kasumi smiled as Akane took it._

"_It's time you've had our own adventure" Kasumi simply said._

"_Thank you Kasumi, I'll miss you" Akane smiled hugging her elder sister._

"_As will I, Shinnosuke please take care of my sister" Kasumi requested of the young man._

"_I will ma'me" Shinnosuke dipped his head politely.  
"Off you to go now, before you get caught" Kasumi smiled ushering them off._

_They ran off to where they ship was docked and jumped in as Eugene, a local friend, untied the rope from the dock. With a shove of his foot, they were off and Shinnosuke let the sails unfold to catch the win. Akane looked at Eugene and waved at him before turning to stir the ship in the direction wanted. She looked at the island seeing the Grand Tendo Palace extended up into the side of a mountain above all the trees. Akane watched as the palace got farther and father away until it wasn't visible anymore. As of then, Akane had no home._

"No long has a home" Akane whispered.

Later on Akane and Shinnosuke were in their room that they had shared before getting ready for bed. Akane was changing into pajamas having already taken a shower as Shinnosuke was in bed already. Akane was had no problem changing in front of the opposite sex, well actually Shinnosuke was the only one she felt this comfortable around. Shinnosuke had a problem with it saying that he felt he was invading her privacy and he still does try to avoid looking. Finally changed into a dark brown t-shirt and black short shorts Akane climbed into bed next to Shinnosuke.

"Do you think its time I found someone to love?" Akane asked Shinnosuke.

"If you want to it's been nine years since you made your vow before you left" he shrugged.

"You love me right?" Akane asked putting her head on his shoulder.

"You know I do and I always will" he answered.

"What if I made my decision to love you, what would you do?" Akane asked straddling his waist.

"I would not do anything because I know you do not love me like I love you and I will not take advantage of you, I promised to take care of you and I intend to do that, plus such an action of this would hurt the both of us" he shook his head.

"Oh Shinnosuke, you love me so" Akane said falling to the side of the bed next to him.

"It's now time for bed Miss Akane" he said shaking his head turning the lamp off.

Akane yawned and put her head on his shoulder with an arm around his waist as he let one arm stay under her waist and wrap around her back. He put his cheek on the top of her head and soon he was asleep. Akane, unfortunately, wasn't asleep but instead had her eyes open looking straight ahead. She couldn't help but to think of everything that would happen when they got to Tendo Island. Akane could only wonder if Ranma was happy with Shampoo and if they had any children yet. But also wondered about all her friends and family; Yuka, Sayuri, Ryoga, Ukyo, Kuno, Dad, Nabiki, Kasumi, Dr. Tofu. Akane could only to herself if Dr. Tofu and her beloved sister, Kasumi, were married. Akane could only think.

Kasumi was suddenly awoken from her sleep panting putting a hand to her chest. Having been awoken by his wife's sudden action, Dr. Tofu shot up. He turned their lamp on and put his glasses on as he looked at his wife panting. He gripped her shoulder's lightly as he saw tears form at her eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked thoroughly confused.

"I felt her, I felt Akane, like she was so close to me" Kasumi cried deeply.

"Kasumi honey, I know you miss her, but you got to let go, Akane left us, all of us" he sighed rubbing her shoulders.

"No she didn't leave us, she went on an adventure to find herself" Kasumi shook her head remembering the night she let her younger sister go.

"I thought so too, but come on Kasumi honey, it's time to go back to bed" he sighed as he helped lay her back down.

Kasumi laid her head on her white pillow still holding the area where her heart was and sniffled wiping her tears away. She had always remembered her mother talking about knowing when the three of them were hurt or lost. Her mother, Sakurai, told her that she always knew because of this feel she got in her heart; a jolt of pain or the feeling of being lost told her what was wrong. Kasumi knew now tonight, what her mother was talking about but it wasn't fear or loss it felt more like fear and fright. Never minding what her husband said, she knew that she felt Akane, she knew Akane was close.


	13. Chapter 13

Do you really have to go?" Hilde asked when they were ready to board the ship.

"Yes we have to make our way to Tendo Island" Shinnosuke nodded as Akane said farewell to the townspeople.

"Take care, I want to see you and Miss Akane again sometime within the next eight years" Hilde smiled.

"We will visit on our way back from Tendo Island" Shinnosuke bowed

"Bye Hilde, thank you for everything" Akane smiled hugging the big woman.

They boarded the ship as some of the townspeople untied the boat and gave them a push away from the dock. People waved them off as they looked at the townspeople as they set sail for Tendo Island again. Akane smiled knowing that the risk of exposing herself on the island was worth it. Seeing the smiling people of the town and the loud thanks was worth showing her face to an island so close to her home land. Shinnosuke looked at Akane and sighed knowing that since Akane has gone back on her word of not showing her face, something is bound to happen.

"Those people really loved you guys" Luffy said to Akane and Shinnosuke.

"Well I would love the heroes that saved my island" Robin shrugged crossing her arms over her chest.

"I don't think it's because we beat the monster on their island" Akane sighed looking at the descending island.

"What do you think then?" Luffy asked blinking confused.

"I remember when I was younger I had an uncle, he's dead now, but he was really rich and he always had a different girlfriend when I saw him, but I knew the girls only liked him because he had money and would spoil him with the money, but I loved my uncle because he was also so nice and always knew how to put a smile on my face, you can say the townspeople don't love us because we killed the monster but because they love who we are" Akane smiled was the island disappeared from sight.

"Miss Akane, it's time for you to go get a drink" Shinnosuke noted to her.

"Oh can you make it for me, I need to do something in my room" Akane put her hands together in a begging way.

"Certainly Miss Akane, I'll bring it to your room" Shinnosuke nodded heading to the kitchen.

Akane jumped into her room and began looking through her bag before pulling out a small box. She opened it slowly remembering what is inside. Upon light blue cotton was a silver necklace; it was a long silver chain with a silver locket at the end. The locket was made of silver as well with a picture of a palace in the middle of the locket. Opening it, Akane looked at the picture of her sister, mom, and father on one side of the locket. Akane's heart gave a squeeze looking at the other side seeing his bright blue eyes and his loving smile looking right at her. She smiled a bit seeing him in the picture holding a peace sign while stepping on his dad's panda form back. Akane didn't know how long she was looking at it until she heard the door open and saw Shinnosuke with the bowl. Quickly she shoved the box back into her bag but Shinnosuke had caught her.

"You can't love anyone else when you still love him" Shinnosuke sighed sadly kneeling by her.

"I don't love him, I just miss my family" Akane covered up shielding her face.

"Don't lie to me Akane, I know you better than anyone" he shook his head pushing her hair away.

"When we go to Tendo Island, I'm staying a cat the whole time" Akane warned making him stop.

"If that is what you wish" he sighed handing her the bowl.

Akane brought the bowl to her lips and began to drink down the golden colored liquid. Chocking down the flavor, some of the brother rolled down her cheeks onto the ground as she tried to not throw up. When it was all gone, Shinnosuke took the bowl and cleaned her face with his dark blue long John shirt. Afterwards he helped her into her hammock as she shudder feeling the effect on her body. He pulled her blanket over her body and took off her boots as she twisted and gave out shaky breaths in her sleep. Knowing that he couldn't do anything, he left her to fall asleep in her hammock.

Bright lights shined in Akane's eyes as she opened them finding her very close to the ceiling as she groaned pulling her blanket off of her. Akane put a hand to her head swinging her feet off the hammock falling gracefully onto her feet without a sound. Slowly she made her way to the deck as the ship rocked back and forth slightly. Putting a hand to the wall as she climbed the stairs to the deck Akane shielded her eyes from the bright sun.

"Finally sleeping beauty is up" Zolo mocked.

"How long was I out?" Akane yawned.

"Three days, we're almost to Tendo Island" Nami held up two fingers wiggling them.

"Three days?" Akane tried yelling but instead yawned again.

"Yeah, we tried waking you up, but you were dead asleep" Ussop shrugged as he climbed down from the birds nest.

"Dang I wonder why I was dead asleep." Akane asked leaning on the railing.

At that instant the railing broke and down Akane went. A scream fell through Akane's lips as she fell through the air. The screamed was ended by the splash as her body made contact with the water. Quickly everyone went running to the railing as Sanji ran to drop anchor. They wait for Akane's head to bob up when an arm surfaced and then a head. But as soon as they saw her, she body went back under the water disappearing. Zolo looked Shinnosuke with his big eyes and paniced face.

"Why don't you go after her?" Zolo yelled grabbing the front of his shirt.

"I can't swim!" Shinnosuke yelled throwing his hand off his shirt.

"What do you mean you can't swim?" Zolo yelled his face confused.

"I mean I can't swim!" Shinnosuke panted.

"God, here hold this" Zolo growled.

Zolo shoved his sword into Shinnosuke's arms and then went diving in for Akane. They watched as a green head bobbed up above the water then went down under again looking for the petite fallen girl. Zolo held his breath as long as he could while under the water looking for her body. Moving his arms in small circles while whipping his head back and forth he couldn't see her until he looked down and saw her long blue hair. With almost a yell for her name he went diving for her trying to keep up as he body sunk almost like a rock. Quickly as he could he grabbed her waist and pulled her to his chest swimming back to the surface. As soon as he broke surface, he was almost pulled under again until he grabbed the rope ladder Nami threw down.

"Jeez, I almost died down there, it was like Akane weighed a ton down there" Zolo gasped as he fell on the deck.

Shinnosuke ran to Akane's side and put his ear to her mouth feeling the light breeze of her breathing. He grabbed her face slightly patting her cheek to waken her up when he saw her eyes snap open. Rapidly she rolled onto her stomach and coughed up a bunch of water right onto the deck. Hearing her coughs almost everyone sighed that she was alright.  
"What happened?" Akane gasped rolling back onto her back.

"The railing broke and you fell in then Zolo swam in and saved you" Ace said wrapping towel around her.

"Oh my god, thank you so much Zolo" Akane panted as she hugged Zolo's shoulders.

"Whatever" he grunted not liking the affection.

"I owe you big time" Akane sighed before kissing his cheek.

"Um whatever" he grunted again blushing; now he did like that.

"Let's go get some new clothes on you" Robin said helping her up.

Akane changed out of her wet clothes and into a dress. The dress was made of a sky blue see through material with buttons going all the way from the bottom to the top where her collar was. She wore a white spaghetti strap dress underneath and her leather boots before going back to the deck. Zolo was in his hammock lounging as Akane noticed he didn't change but let the warm sun dry him off.


	14. Chapter 14

"How long to Tendo Island?" Akane asked Nami as she stood over her maps.

"About next morning" Nami said in a hesitant voice.

"Okay, you want something to snack on?" Akane asked.

"Yes please" Nami said in a perky tone.

Going into the kitchen Akane saw Sanji in the kitchen and asked for a few snacks in a sweet innocent voice. Almost an instant after command Sanji had a plate full of snacks for her and he had a cup of juice for her. With a kiss to his check Akane took the tray and stood by Nami with the tray in between them snacking. Without their notice Ace stood off by the railing where Akane had fallen through and was watching them again. Nami had noticed but didn't tell Akane as she smirked looking as his dark eyes wander over Akane's small figure. Shinnosuke was off standing by the stairs watching as Ace let his eyes wander all over.

He crossed his arms over his chest as a slight glare came upon his face targeted at Ace. It wasn't that Shinnosuke was getting his love get in the way, but because of his protection of her. Ace, feeling the glare, looked over at Shinnosuke who let his glare soften but didn't look away to let Ace know that he saw him. Ace slightly jumpy at the look he was given looked at the front of the ship as Nami smirked looking over her shoulder at Shinnosuke. Akane was still lost on the maps looking at the mark of Tendo Island and from where they were.

"Akane you got watch tonight" Robin signaled Akane as the night fell.

"Okay, just let me grab some stuff" Akane nodded skipping off to her room.

Akane grabbed her blanket changing in long black leather pants and a plain dark blue t-shirt to keep warm. Akane also grabbed this thermos full of hot chai tea that she made previously. She climbed up to the birds nest to be on watch as Luffy, who was on watch before, slugged to bed. Akane got situated with her blanket over her legs and a cup of tea in between her hands. With a sigh Akane looked at the night sky seeing the deep blue color and the twinkling lights of the stars. Her sight got lost in the sky with a smile remembering the nights her mother and her would look at the night sky for hours.

"_Look Akane honey, it's Andromeda" her mother pointed out._

"_Mommy it's looks like an 'm'" Akane pointed out._

"_Yes Andromeda does look like an 'm'" her mother chuckled._

"_M for mommy" Akane grinned up to her mom._

"Akane, your watch is over" Shinnosuke's voice whispered in her ear.

"Go away" Akane groaned pushing his hand away.

"Akane it's morning" Shinnosuke's voice said sighing.

"So?" she groaned pulling the blanket over her head.

"Tendo Island is in view" he warned.

With that warning Akane popped up and looked out past the ship seeing the island's tropical vegetation. She gasped seeing the grand palace of her home shine above the tropical trees of the forest. She could see the town and all the big buildings and the active people. Tears almost fell from her face as she envisions her boat leaving the dock late at night. Shinnosuke looked at her and gripped her shoulders from behind leaning her into him. Her head dipped with her long midnight blue shielding her face as she could feel the ship drop anchor. Zolo, Ace, and Sanji tied the ropes to the dock as Nami, Robin, Luffy, Ussop, and Chopper went down to tow.

"I'm going to get the plant, you distract the others" Akane whispered to Shinnosuke.

Before he could even say anything Akane's body slimmed and went furry in his arms. She went on all fours and morphed down to a smaller size before jumping down from the birds nest. Even from the high jump Akane landed gracefully on her feet and looked up at Shinnosuke before taking off on her own. Nami's eyes looked at the blue cat bouncing away in front of her looking to be in a big hurry. Looking over her shoulder she looked at Shinnosuke climbing from the birds nest without Akane. Her eyes scanned the ship briefly looking for the blue haired girl seeing no sign. Then her eyes went back to the blue furred cat jumping on the roofs.

'Now let's see if I remember the way there' Akane thought to herself.

Akane went bouncing on her way until she saw a familiar building. It was small and simple among the big more colorful buildings around. There was a feminine touch though in the front with the flower bushes in the front. Akane remembered the little shop and was about to bounce her way through when the front door opened. Out walked a beautiful woman with soft brown wavy hair and pretty brown eyes. Her hair was slung over her shoulder perfectly and her long simple light green dress made her look like a super model. A man walked out from behind her with a black gi and glasses with brown hair and light brown eyes as well. They spoke some words to each other before the man gave the woman a small kiss and the woman left. The woman was about to walk past her when her eyes were caught by the blue feline.

"Oh my, well aren't you cute" her soft sweet voice spoke.

'Oh Kasumi, you're even more beautiful than before' Akane thought as Kasumi's delicate hand patted her head.

"Your furs very soft, if only I could take you home, but you see the next in line is deathly afraid of cats" Kasumi spoke before standing back up.

'No Kasumi, take me home, I want to go back home' Akane cried in her mind as she squint her eyes tight to hold her tears in.

"I have to go now kitty, have a nice day" her sweet voice said smiling at the feline.

Kasumi walked off with a grace of a goddess with her long dress flowing behind her.

Akane blinked her tears beack and looked at the simple building remembering this to be Dr. Tofu's clinic. All the times she came for getting into fights, falling down, hurting herself in training, or when **HE** was hurt. Akane hurridly bounced to the clinic seeing the lobby window open and pounced with all her might to the window. She sat on the window seal seeing the clam quiet Dr. Tofu sitting at his desk signing papers. Then suddenly he stopped and looked at some of the pictures on hid desk. He grabbed one and sighed, Akane figured it was one of him and Kasumi until he started to speak.

"Why did you have to leave Akane, it's not fair that you left, that you left all of us, Kasumi still dreams about you coming home, feels that you will return. Nabiki still hides her grief in her business but I know she missed you too, and you were Soun's little baby and when his little baby left all he did was cry and now he think of you dead. You see everyone missed you Akane, but I know it was for your own good to have left, I knew you were getting tired and depressed that's why I can't blame you for leaving, you needed to leave and live your own life, but I just wish there was a word from you saying you were okay to reassure Kasumi and Nabiki" chocked up putting the picture down.

'Dr. Tofu!' Akane meowed loudly for him.

The meow had gotten his attention and he looked sharply over his shoulder at Akane. Akane almost gave a gasp seeing his glossy wet eyes behind his glasses. He smiled getting up from his chair and strolling his way over there to her. His big hand came up and pets her soft head making Akane purr and rub her head into his big soft hand. He picked her up by her under arms and put her against her shoulder as she went up and licked his cheek softly.

"Hey now, stop that" he chuckle petting her back.

'I missed you Dr. Tofu' Akane meowed.

"Are you hungry, wait here while I get some milk" he smiled putting her on his desk.

Akane looked around and saw a pen. '_I just wish there was a word from you saying you were okay'_ those were his words right? Akane quickly grabbed the pen in her mouth as best as she could and started scribbling across a random piece of paper. Then hearing the light footsteps of Dr. Tofu making his way back, Akane dropped the pen and started bouncing away. Dr. Tofu gave a hey and set the bowl of milk on his desk as he looked out the window Akane jumped through. She didn't look back as she pounced away dashing through some bushes and out of his sight.

Inside the clinic, Dr. Tofu gave a huff and went back to the kitchen putting the milk back in the jug and the bowl in the sink. He sighed going back to his desk to continue signing off papers. Giving the picture he was confessing to one last look he sighed going back to his papers. Then he noticed that there were pen marks on the paper he was about to sign. At first he thought they were scratch marks from the cat when he started flipping it around. His eyes widen when he turned it upside down and in jagged in complete lines was **'I'm okay don't worry'**. His eyes darted out the window again to look for the cat and then ran out the front door into the yard. Unknown to him, light brown eyes peeked around a barrel of fruit looking in his direction before they darted off.


	15. Chapter 15

"Hey,it says that you can take a tour of the palace and even maybe see some of the royal family, let's go" Luffy grinned at the town map.

"Yeah, that would be cool" Sanji shrugged.

"Let's go, let's go" Nami cheered wanting to see the extravagant palace.

Shinnosuke sighed knowing that if there was the chance of some of the royal family seeing him, there was a chance that Akane would be found out. He sighed as they pulled him along to towards the palace to take the tour. Looking around he wished he knew where Akane was, but on the way to the palace he saw a familiar man in a black gi and brown hair tied back in his yard. He looked like he was looking for someone with his panic yet happy look on his face as his looked left and right rapidly. Then he looked down at this piece of paper in hand and went back inside of his building. Shinnosuke shook his head, knowing Akane had been there already.

'Now let me see, if I'm correct jumping this wall will lead me into the garden' Akane thought to herself as she careful jumped onto top of a stone wall.

Akane was right seeing the grand garden filled with wild flowers, grand trees, and the beautiful koi pond with a waterfall. She could see a small little blue haired girl in a pink kimono run through the garden giggling. A woman with long curly blue haired followed in a light blue kimono giggling until they got to the koi pond and disappeared. Akane sighed sitting on one of the stones that made a path through the garden looking at it all. Then she saw it, the plant needed to save her grandpa. Akane happily bounced towards it when she was suddenly grabbed from behind by her waist and tugged backwards.

"Mommy I found a kitty!" a cute baby voice yelled.

"Akako put that kitty down" a familiar voice lectured.

Akane looked up to see a pretty woman about her age, maybe a little older, with long brown hair tied back by a white bow wearing a dark purple silk Chinese shirt and tight dark brown pants. Next to him was a tall man also around her age with a yellow and black bandana, a long sleeve light brown shirt and black pants. Her eyes watered seeing the familiar faces of her friends as she realized the little boy called Ukyo mommy.

"Daddy, can I show uncle Ranma the kitty?" the little boy asked.

"Go ahead Akako" Ryoga nodded with a grin.

'Ryoga? Ukyo? You guys had a baby?' Akane thought her eyes getting teary again.

"Thank you Daddy, Daddy can you hold the kitty? I want to pick mommy a flower" the little boy said handing Akane to Ryoga.

"Do you think it's bad we named our child after Akane except boy version?" Ukyo asked petting Akane.

'You named him after me?' Akane thought feeling a tear form again.

"No because it lets the memory of Akane live on" Ryoga shook his head looking as his son went about the flowers.

"It's been nine years; do you think Soun is right about her being dead?" Ukyo sighed deeply.

"You never know, but I have a feeling that not even Soun believes that she's dead" Ryoga sighed as well.

Akane let the tear slip from her eyes as she stifled a cry as the tear fell right onto Ryoga's hand. He looked down at the cat noticing that the cat had its eyes closed like it was crying. Then the cat opened its eyes and looked up at him making him notice the light brown color of her eyes. Without warning Akane jumped from his grip and ran off forgetting the plant as Ryoga and Ukyo gave a 'hey' and a 'what the…' Ukyo looked at the cat running off and then to her husband seeing his dazed face.

"Ryoga what's wrong?" she asked.

"The cat, it was crying and it's eyes" he drifted off.

"What was wrong with its eyes?" Ukyo almost yelled snapping him out of his trance.

"Its eyes were the same as Akane's" he finished not looking at her.

"Look there's Sir Tendo" Ussop gasped seeing the stone faced man.

"If you can see we are disrupting Sir Tendo, so we'll quickly leave the study" said the tour guide rushing them out.

They hurried out of the study and went on down the hallway until they came to a giant painting that took almost the whole wall. It was of the grand Tendo family; Sir Tendo, Lady Sakurai, Princess Kasumi, Princess Nabiki, and Princess Akane. Almost all of the straw hats eyes got wide as they saw the young face of a six year old with long flowing blue hair and light brown eyes.

"That looks like Akane" Zolo pointed out to Robin.

"This is the last family picture containing the beautiful Lady Sakurai, as you know Lady Sakurai was the only queen Sir Tendo ever married ever since she died from an assassination that was meant for Sir Tendo. This portrait over here is the last one containing the young Princess Akane, at the age of 17 she ran away after an attack by the Chinese Amazons. Every anniversary the royal Tendo family goes to the dock and lets out boats containing the number of flowers since her leave. So far it will be nine years in two days of her anniversary, so far almost all of the townspeople do the tradition of throwing forget me nots onto the water." The tour guide sighed looking at the portrait.

The straw hats hanged back looking at the portrait seeing the face of the 14 year old Princess Akane. Princess Akane looked like their Akane, but they knew that their beer chugging, loud mouth, brutal, butt pounding Akane and the delicate Princess Akane couldn't be the same. Ace looked at the portrait looking at the face seeing if there was any other relation between the two of them other than the hair and eyes. But sadly he couldn't see anything that didn't make them look alike other than the tattoos. The straw hats crew went on running after the tour group.

"Oh my Kami, Prince Ranma and his wife Miss Shampoo" Nami whispered seeing the two.

Shinnosuke ducked his head hoping that Ace's big body would cover him as he hanged behind him. Peeking over the large man's shoulder he saw the long black haired man look up from his plate of exotic fruit as his wife entertained the tours. His face looked dead and emotionless while he scanned the group of tourist. Only he wished that the long purple haired Amazon would be replaced by a certain short blue haired girl smiling and waving at the tourist. Then he noticed a certain someone hiding. His eyes squinted as she moved around trying to see who it was when the person in front of them unexpectedly turned towards a ginger haired girl. His eyes widened seeing the familiar face of Shinnosuke.

"_What happened?" a sleepy Ranma asked the crying Soun._

"_Akane ran away" Soun cried seeing the note Akane has left._

"_Where's Shinnosuke?" Nabiki asked not seeing the other male friend._

"_She ran away with him" Soun cried throwing himself to the floor._

"Shinnosuke!" Ranma yelled jumping from his seat.

The chair Ranma had been sitting in fell back as he dashed his way over to the tourist. Ace turned out of the way of Ranma who slammed into Shinnosuke. Shinnosuke grunted as his back connected with the wall behind them. Ranma's enraged face came close to Shinnosuke for Shinnosuke to feel his hot breath on his face.

"Where is she?" Ranma yelled .

"Let me go" Shinnosuke managed to grunt out.

"Tell me! Where is she now!" Ranam yelled punching the wall besides Shinnosuke's face.

"Aiyah! Husband very mad!" Miss Shampoo squeaked.

"Where is Akane! If you know what's good for you, you'll tell me!" Ranma panted pushing Shinnosuke up the wall by his throat.

"You're too late Ranma" Shinnosuke chocked out.

"Prince Ranma please calm down!" A guard grunted pulling Ranma off of Shinnosuke.

Shinosuke slide down the wall holding his throat coughing for air as Ranma was pulled away by three guards. Ranma kept yelling at Shinnosuke to tell him where Akane was and how much he suffered when she left. The straw hats looked Shinnosuke coughing as he sat on the ground and the angered prince being pulled away. They said no words as no one could find the right words to say until Ussop gained the courage.

"Who are you guys?" were Ussop's words.


	16. Chapter 16

Akane uncurled herself from the ball she had hidden herself in and drew her paw across her eyes to clear her vision up. Then finding her on the roof she gave a small breath and started walking again back to the garden seeing the plant needed. Akane looked at the plant with almost hatred before snatching bunch of them in her mouth and then started bouncing off towards the ship. On the ship she put the plants in the box with the silver necklace and shoved it in the bottom of her bag. Akane put her elbow up on a bent knee and leaned her head on her knuckles letting a tear slip from her eyes. Then containing herself, Akane cleaned her face and went up on the deck just as the rest of the straw hats were coming up.

"How could you not tell us you are a princess!" Zolo yelled.

"What?" Akane's eyes got wide then looked at Shinnosuke her eyes darting towards his bruised neck.

"You're Princess Akane, run away of the Tendo family, how could not tell us that?" Nami spoke a little softer.

"That is none of your business, don't you guys even try to tell me you feel betrayed, I didn't invade your private life so you have no right to invade mine" Akane shook her head feeling the tears form.

"Being a wanted criminal is one thing, a princess is another, you're part of royal family, and you're worth more than us put together" Sanji sighed.

"You have no idea why I left " Akane was cut off by Ace.

"Actually we do, Shinnosuke told us" Ace looked down.

"_Who are you guys?" Ussop asked._

"_You probably already know but Akane, the hotel owner Akane you know, is really Princess Akane Tendo of the royal Tendo family. When she was 16 Akane was arranged to marry Prince Ranma Saotome but did not know he had several other fiancés. When she was 17 one of his fiancés, Miss Shampoo the one he is married to now, her great grandmother captured her and for a week they starved Miss Akane until Ranma was able to track them down. When he tracked them down Shampoo's great grandmother bargained with him that if he won she would let Akane go and Shampoo would no longer be one of his fiancés, but if he lost he would have to marry Shampoo and disregard all other fiancés. In the end Shampoo won and when Akane encouraged him to fight on, Ranma didn't fight for her he just laid on the ground and admitted defeat. But upon that in the year she was engaged to him all they did was fight, call each other names, send each other crying or into the sky. So Akane decided to leave, leave her family, leave the engagement, leave her friends, leave behind his extravagant life; leave everything behind to live her life. Before she left I had came to visit her and she asked me to come with her. She said I was the only she trusted to enough to go with her all the way to being free and not turning back on her. So we left and we never came back, on the way of sailing something happened to us and we took refuge to Akane's grandpa. Ever since then we lives with him and Akane made her hotel and took care of her grandpa as he became ill"_

"Why didn't you tell us?" Luffy asked making Akane's head dip down.

"I was able to stay away for nine years and keep my secret for nine years, I didn't want to be found, I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want my secret to leak out that I was still alive and have people come looking for me" Akane cried.

"Princess Akane!" a voice yelled.

Akane ran to the side of the ship and looked to seethe palace guards there. There was also Ranma, Dr. Tofu, and her father there in the front. Akane's hands gripped the railing for the boats as she ran to her room grabbing her nun chucks and then ran back. Almost everyone looked at her as she tucked her nun chucks in the back loop of her leather pants. Her steps were light, making no sound in her heavy boots, as she walked down the board stopping halfway with her arms limp by her sides. Her head was low with her long blue black hair shielding her face as the wind whipped it behind her.

"Akane?" she could hear her father.

"Hi Dad, Ranma, Ryoga, Dr. Tofu" Akane lifted her head showing her face.

"Akane get off that ship and come home, now" Her father commanded waving her over.

"No" Akane firmly stated.

"What? Akane don't be ridiculous, get off that ship and come home, you're not a pirate and you don't have a bounty you're a princess and you will live like one" her father snapped.

"No I own a hotel and I live with my grandpa, I'm 25 years old not 16 anymore" Akane shook her head.

"Akane listen to your father, please this is where you belong not with some pirates that you hitched a ride with" Ranma snapped.

"No, I don't belong in this glorious, high end life, and I don't want it" Akane continued.  
"Stop being ridiculous so come down and we can fix our engagement" Ranma said gritting his teeth.

"No you don't deserve me, you don't deserve anything I gave you when we were engaged, so you don't have a say in anything that concerns my life" Akane snapped death glaring him.

"Yeah!" Sanji cheered.

"Dr. Tofu you know, you were saying that I deserved to be free and live my life away from this island that I needed to get away because this island was making me depressed and it was killing me" Akane begged to Dr. Tofu.

"You guys don't need her, we do!" Nami yelled provoking Sanji.

"Yeah, you're not the only one that loves her!" Sanji yelled with hearts in his eyes.

"She doesn't want to stay here, so don't force her!" Zolo yelled pushing one of his swords in the air.

"You'll be keeping her a prisoner!" Robin yelled as well.

"We love her too!" Chopper's sweet voice cheered from Ussop's shoulders.

"Just because you have power doesn't mean you can boss people around!" Ussop yelled.

"She's your daughter, listen to what she wants!" Ace yelled.

Akane didn't look back at them as she stood her ground hearing their warnings behind her. Her father and Ranma looked at them as they were yelling behind her. A small smile played on Akane's lips listening to them makes warnings of keep her here and that they loved her. Then suddenly her father's head dipped down.

"That's enough! You are not her family and almost all of you have bounties, I am king, I can call the Marines and all the bounty hunters here to get all of you!" her father warned.

The yelled stopped as Akane started walking down the rest of the board her head down. They gasped thinking she had given up when she walked in front of them and a guard walked up to her. She held her hands up to him with her head still dipped down as he was about to cuff her hands and take her back to the palace. Luffy was about to go down there and stop her.

The guard took the cuffs from his belt and was about to cuff her when she head suddenly snapped up. She had his crazy gleam in her eye and a killer smile. Her hand rounded and socked the guard across the face knocking his helmet off. The other guards gasped seeing their falling comrade then went back to the Princess in her tight leather pants and dark blue tight tee. Definitely a broad bitch.


	17. Chapter 17

Akane took her nun chucks and started to swing them around her head, the chain growing longer and longer picking up sand making a dust ball around them. The straw hats could hear all the clanks, groaning, and battle cries of the guards and Akane fighting. They couldn't see anything but they could just hear Akane kicking the crap out of the guards.

In the dust bowl, Akane wasn't doing as good as she wanted having out beaten fifteen of the guards out of the forty he father had brought. Akane knew her father and Dr. Tofu had already retreated back but Akane knew that Ranma was somewhere in the mess. Akane knew the dust bowl was helping with her cover and her light steps helped too but she couldn't see that well even with her cat senses. The dust bowl was residing as she could see the gleam of the guard's armor through the sand. Akane growled tucking her nun chucks back in her back loop and forming again. Her body became long and slender again with no pattern but a light gold brown color and much larger than her house cat form. She gave a loud roar as she knew the sand mist was gone and everyone could now.

"What the" Nami covered Luffy's mouth before he could finish.

"Akane, is that you?" she could hear Ranma's voice.

Akane only huffed in response as some guards fell back from fright from her roar. Looking at the guards she started pouncing through the guards knocking them around in her female lioness form. She roared again as some guards took out words and spears making her charge at some guards and mid leap changed back into her human form slipping through their legs and raising a leg hitting a soft spot. Her body changed again to her housecat form making guards fall over each other as she twisted her way through the guards and when she had a nice enough pile she changed back into her lioness for and jumped on top. The guards grunted under the weight as she changed back into a human and took out her nun chucks again. She used the handle to block a blow that came over her left shoulder. Her eyes widened seeing the sword had belonged to Ranma. She hissed changing into a house cat hoping it would scare him.

"You can't scare me Akane" he growled as he raised his sword again.

Akane jumped on him again clawing his face as she changed into a human again and took her nun chucks out again wrapping them around one leg and tripping him. She lay on her back pulling his leg across his chest and wrapped her legs around his leg. She turned and kneeled on the ground pulling up on his leg in a leg lock. Ranma grunted but then flipped over on back and kicked up to kick Akane in the chin making her let go of his leg. He struggled standing up struggling to find his sword in the sand. Akane, loosing all of her martial arts training, jumped on her his back and put him in a full nelson pulling back hard on his neck when she felt a pull on her shoulders seeing recovered guards. Her gripped loosened and she threw herself over the guards head and sat on his shoulders. She threw off his helmet and started pounding down on his head. Another guard pulled her down and she fell on her back coughing up blood feeling the devils fruit take over her.

"Akane, you can beat them!" the straw hats cheered.

Akane started kicking and twisting around as hands grabbed her to cuff her. Getting angry Akane started changing again into her lioness form clawing at everyone around her. Her whole mind went blank as she started to slash and claw every guard around her loosing control. Her body changed form without her even knowing but she could feel the blood spilling from her lips, the cuts of the swords, the roars from her anger. Then she stopped pulling a sword from a guards stomach standing with the bloodied sword coughing up more blood a she got a hold on her body anymore. She looked at Ranma who stripped off his armor with his sword in hand.

"Do it Ranma, fight me! Fight me and settle what you didn't finish fighting Shampoo, better yet lets make a bargain , I win you let me go, you win I stay" Akane yelled.

"You don't understand, I had to throw the fight" Ranma grit his teeth

"To marry Shampoo, that's nice, but you know what Ranma I don't care why you lost the battle, I care about going home" Akane threw the sword off to the side turning around.

The she turned around when she felt a presence and turned around biting whatever it was. Her eyes opened seeing her father with her mouth around an arm guard her wore. His eyes were sad as she released her grip on the arm guard but stayed in her form as she took a few steps back. Her eyes looked father back seeing Kasumi, Nabiki, Dr. Tofu, the Kuno, Ryoga, Ukyo, and their baby Akako.

"You are free Akane, Kasumi told me about the night you left and I feel it is only my fault for forcing the marriage , I thought only of my kingdom and not of my daughter, so as a father and not a king I will allow you to sail the world, free of your engagement to Ranma" Soun said making Akane snap her head up.

"But Soun, I don't" Ranma protested.

"You're too late son, you threw a match and lost, it's your own fault!" Soun yelled at him.

"Akane, go be free" Soun smiled hugging her slender feline shoulders.

Akane smiled pressing her large head into his chest before turning changing back into her human form looking at the straw hats smiling and cheering her on. But then it happened, Akane's body gave a shudder like it does when she takes the herbal brother. Her body went crumpling to the ground with a loud pained scream. The straw hats came running down to her side as well as the royal family to her twisting screaming body. Shinnosuke went running to her side holding her face between his hands trying to get her attention. But he could, she kept screaming as they saw her body changing features; whiskers, claws, fur, eyes, things kept changing over and over again as she wiggled around on the ground. With a command of Shinnosuke Chopper and Ussop went running for Akane's bag trying to find that plant that they needed.

"What's wrong with her!" Nami yelled.

"Akane, calm down, look at me, and look at me Akane!" Shinnosuke panicked slapping her face pretty hard.

Then her body stopped changing and she looked at Shinnosuke with her body going stiff. Almost everyone held their breath as she tried making out words.

"I'm sorry, take care of grandpa" Akane was able to choke out from her stiff body.

"Akane, no don't talk like that, we made it over seven years with this curse, you'll live Chopper and Ussop are making the medicine you need" Shinnosuke choked up.

"It's too late, it's time" Akane whispered before her whole body went limp and her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

"Akane?" Luffy asked.

"Miss Akane ?" Chopper asked.

"No, no" Nami cried.

Townspeople that had watched by helped carry the Akane's small body back to the palace and place her up upon onto a stone table. Dr. Tofu tired everything he could to save her body and hopefully revive her back, but the power of the devil's fruit was stronger. The others waited outside of the room on nerve. Then suddenly Zolo backed poor Shinnosuke into a wall just like how Ranma did except with his forearm to his throat. Shinnosuke grunted hitting his head harder than last time.

"What happened, you said something happened to the two of you while you were sailing, what happened, I've never seen something like that happened!" Zolo yelled as Ace pulled him off.

"You want to know, you really want to know? Sometimes when we would sail we didn't have the best of luck with money and food and we had to steal some, so one time we were low on money and we went into a pub to steal money or whatever we could find. We found this fruit in a chest with money, we took some money and we took the fruit, but the fruit didn't look like any other fruit. Akane had already eaten half when he caught us and told us of the dangers of a Neko Neko no Mi fruit, the loss of learning how to swim. Since Akane only ate half the transforming was taking a toll on her body, the lack of devil's fruit was messing with her muscles, the tissue, her bones. That herb was supposed to act as a replacement of devils fruit when she needed it" Shinnosuke explained fixing his clothing.

"Why didn't you just give her the other half?" Robin asked in a really fast tone.

"Because I ate the other half, the half that Akane ate gave her the ability to transform, have cat like reflexes, to not be able to swim, the half I ate still let me have cat reflexes and not be able to swim but I'm able to imprint and I imprinted on Akane, which was why I stayed with her all these years" Shinnosuke explained.

"You got the lucky part" Nami breathed.

"Yes, it could either be me or Akane in the room right now" he sighed looking at the wooden door.

The day of the anniversary the boats with the nine forget me nots and the townspeople throwing the same flowers into the water, but they weren't the only thing pushed out onto the water. Akane's body was washed and clothed in a long white dress with flowers in her hair and flowers in her hands. Her body was put on a board decorated with candles and flowers and was pushed out to see as a priestess blessed her body from the dock.

The straw hats and Shinnosuke sailed back to the island where her grandpa awaited hanging on. Upon seeing Shinnosuke but not Akane questioned grew as Shinnosuke prepared the medicine and spoon feed it to Grandpa Ken. It wasn't until the morning that he had felt better and that the news was heard. Shinnosuke only brought the nun chucks Grandpa Ken had given Akane and the story of her death. Tears flowed down his old wrinkled face seeing the nun chucks with small splatters of blood. The townspeople set flowers of all kinds on to the remains of her burnt hotel along with their tears and sorrow.


	18. Chapter 18

"_You can't die yet"_

"_Huh?" _

"_You can't die yet, I will help you live" _

"_Who are you?"_

"_A friend" _

Out on the ocean, a beautiful girl dressed in white and flowers were drifting on a decorated piece of wood. A small ship was sailing along until the captain of the ship, a handsome man with curly black hair and grey eyes, noticed the girl. The men had dropped anchor and netted the girl in with the flowers falling from the board. They laid the girl on the deck of the ship a crew member put his dagger towards her nose to see if she had any breathe. Seeing no air mark on his dagger he put it away and shook his head to his captain. They debated whether on throwing the girl back out or giving it to the crew members for pleasure. The captain looked at the girl seeing her beautiful angelic face with her long blue hair and snow white skin.

"_Time to go back" the voice said._

"_Wait why are you helping me?" _

"_Akane honey, you too young to die my dear"_

"_Mom?"_

The captain took a step back about to make his decision when he heard a loud gasp behind him. He looked to see the girl turning on her side gasping and coughing harshly. He hurried to her side taking his leather coat off and wrapping it around her shoulders. She looked at him with an unsure face and scooted away a bit using her hair was a shield.

"My name's Aeries what's yours?" he asked.

He saw the question made the girl grip her head in wonderment. She groaned closing her eyes trying to remember. A loud pounding started on her head as everything was blank in her mind.

"I don't remember" she muttered looking up at him.


End file.
